Features & Capabilities

Welcome to The Plain Dealer's Online Newspaper app. Dive into award-winning local news, daily features, sports updates, and entertainment highlights anytime, anywhere—with an enhanced reading experience, bonus magazines, supplements, interactive puzzles, and easy article sharing.

Subscribers enjoy full access to each edition at no extra cost by logging in with their Plain Dealer account. App-only subscriptions are available, and Terms of Use and Privacy Policy are provided within the app.

User Growth & Download Statistics

By:
The Plain Dealer Publishing Company
Rating:
4.20
(4,625)
8 new ratings
Version:
8.0.0 Last updated: 2026-01-13
Version code:
881321983
Creation date:
2011-11-11
Compatible devices:
Size:
35.10MB
URLs:
Website ,Privacy policy
Full description:
See detailed description
Source:
Apple Apps Store
Data ingested on:
2026-06-05
Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.
Developed by:
The Plain Dealer Publishing Company
Apple Apps Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-plain-dealer/id457556777
Website:
http://www.plaindealer.com

User Reviews

Overall, users appreciate the convenience of The Plain Dealer on iPad/iPhone and praise the newer app as an improvement with a strong online experience. However, many reviews report repeated issues: instability and crashes; readability and layout problems; difficult navigation; subscription/login glitches; and perceived political bias in coverage. These concerns appear across multiple reviews and drive dissatisfaction when the app misbehaves.
Pros
  • Convenient digital access to The Plain Dealer on iPad/iPhone.
  • New version is an improvement over the old app with better navigation.
  • Strong online experience and content, praised as comparable to top papers.
  • Loyal, long-time subscribers express continued satisfaction.
  • Generally enjoyable app when it works.
Cons
  • Instability and crashes when switching apps or relaunching the app.
  • Readability and layout problems: small fonts, pages not fitting the screen, hard scrolling.
  • Navigation gaps: missing section headers and difficulty jumping to sections.
  • Subscription/login friction: login failures and sign-in hurdles; subscription glitches.
  • Perceived political bias in coverage that some readers feel undermines trust.
Recent reviews
Terrible coverage of the White House Press event attempted assassination What a useless paper
by Ch*****, 2026-04-27

The new version is a major improvement over the old. It seems the slow refresh, blurry images and text of the past has finally been solved. The navigation seems to work well also once you understand the new interface. One problem that occurs however is the startup in landscape mode. Even though I set the preference to view one page wide, when I pick the paper to read, it initially displays one page but it is very small with lots of space on the sides. A workaround for this is to turn the device momentarily to portrait mode and then back to landscape after which the page displays full width. This should be an easily solvable problem. Update Feb 2026: A couple pain points with this app that I would have hoped to be solved by now but still remain: 1. Why does the app nearly always exit if you momentarily switch to another app or switch off the display and then come back? No other iPad app has this behavior. 2. When you do relaunch it, you have to endure watching the dumb PD logo splash screen again before you “sort of” return to where you were. 3. It eventually does restore you to the page you were on, but only at the top of the page without any zoom you might have had on. It won’t position you vertically on that page where you were. Also, if you try to zoom again within the first 10 seconds or so, the app overrides you and resets the screen to full width! Very annoying! These are easy problems to solve. Please fix them! Took off another star due to these problems.
by RS*****, 2026-02-21

My PD online stopped working. I can log in, but when I try to view the paper it says I don’t have a subscription. I need to subscribe to the PD. My $90 a month payment suggests otherwise. PD chat says there is a glitch somewhere and has been escalated to another department. Can I get a refund for the days I don’t get a physical paper (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday)???
by Da*****, 2026-02-11
View all user reviews ›

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