Customer Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Like many others, I tried a subscription to the Chronicle a year ago and cancelled during the 14-day free period. This past November, however, I decided to cancel my regular paper and started trying Kindle versions of several papers from across the country (Las Vegas, Seattle, Sacramento, San Jose, and back to San Francisco). The Chronicle is by far the best of these papers and is available at the lowest price. In addition, it had noticeably improved over what I tried a year ago -- nice pictures to accompany selected articles, summaries of all major sporting events, etc. Further, it has always been waiting on my Kindle when I have breakfast shortly after 6:00. Clearly the complaints about late delivery are out of date.

I should note that 4 stars is the highest rating I can give any Kindle version of newspapers as long as they fail to include comics, local weather, local TV listings, etc. The Chronicle already seems to include more of its content on the Kindle than any other paper (especially the Sunday edition), but not enough for the elusive fifth star.

I canceled during the freebie period for several reasons. First, delivery was late four times in eight days. I want the morning newspaper when I get out of bed, not at noon. Worse, the electronic version does not have things like the weather page or movie listings or most any of the other reference materials you want from a daily paper. Horrors: the electronic edition doesn't give you the Pink Section. Why buy the Chron if you don't get the Pink Section? I had hoped to give up my newsprint subscription, but the electronic version is no substitute for the real thing. It isn't worth it.

I am a long time Chronicle subscriber but at this time of the year I go to work very early and the carrier never delivers before I leave home. I was hoping the Kindle edition would enable me to read the paper when I got to work. Unfortunately, the Kindle edition was often later than the paper edition, once several hours later. The Kindle edition also lacked many of the features that I read the daily paper for: comics, sports tv listings and many other articles that I like to scan. Maybe if I'm traveling out of town I might think of ordering a single copy but a daily subscription is out of the question for now.

I enjoy reading the Kindle version of the S.F. Chronicle, but it is a different experience. The newspaper is usually available by 6 am each day, and this suits my schedule just fine. The Kindle version has a summary page which shows each section of the paper and the number of articles in each section along with a short summary. I can use this page to read just the articles that are of interest to me. The ability to cut and save articles is also a big plus. As some reviews have pointed out, there are no ads, obituaries, sports box scores, movie listings, etc. Some of these omissions detract from the electronic newspaper, and I hope the Chronicle will consider listing, for example, the obituaries in the near future and making other changes.

The main difference for me is the fact that it takes me much longer to read the Kindle version of the Chronicle. I have a tendency to scan through the articles and this isn't possible with the Kindle. Perhaps this is a good thing. Before the Kindle, the Chronicle was always a morning paper for me, but since I carry the Kindle with me, I find myself reading the newspaper at various times during the day.

My overall impression is very positive. The 2nd version of the Kindle provides a very convenient way of reading newspapers, magazines, and books, and I am already looking forward to the 3rd version which will hopefully offer a color screen.

Hey, I've been a SF Chron subscriber for all of my adult life and I'm OLD so that's a long time. We're moving to a very rural area of the Bay Area where there is no home delivery so I thought we'd give the Kindle version a try even though there are several negative reviews.
It's great, I love it. So far, always available when I get up (6:30ish). I love the way I can page through just the way I would with a paper paper. Also, I'm not in whispernet range and was worried downloading from my computer would be a pain, but it's not! If you care about the comics, they're not there, but Jon Carroll is and that's what's important to me. Might have to get another Kindle though so my husband and I can read at the same time.

I've been very pleased with my first three weeks. The paper is always on my Kindle when I get up at 7 AM. The table of contents is easy to navigate and complete - allowing you see all the sections or even all the articles in a section if you choose. I usually select a section by pressing in on the 5 way switch and then move page to page. If I come upon an article I don't want to read, I use the left tilt on the 5 way switch to move to the next article (right takes you back one). Almost all the pictures from the "real" paper are included.
The difference I'm still getting used to is that there are no jumps. With the Kindle version you read one front page story all the way through and then the next one. You don't come to the secondary stories that relate until you get to the inner page. So, you'll be reading along and come to a later page and realize "oh yeah, these stories are related to the main article." Perhaps as they refine the Kindle version they'll have jump-to links at the end of the main story.
More important, though, is that the baseball box scores and standings are not included. I hope the folks who put the Kindle version together are reading that last sentence, because that would make it great. Therefore 4 stars instead of 5, but I'm liking it.

I'm in my first weeks of owning the Kindle 2, and I'm wild about it. I signed on for the free trial subscription to the SF Chronicle, thinking I wouldn't like it much, because I do enjoy flipping through the paper edition and deciding what to read. Was I surprised to discover the "flipping through" part is easy as can be. You can either "flip" to the next page, or to the next article, or to the section titles -- with just one thumb press. I am delighted by the amount of content, especially in the Sunday edition.

I don't give it 5-stars because, like other reviewers, I wish it had the TV listings and the complete "Pink" content, but otherwise I'm content. I'll continue to subscribe, and hope we can keep this newspaper going.


Joan Price, author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty and The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book: 300+ quick and easy exercises you can do whenever you want!

I don't live in the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from here. I had my Chronicle delivered by snail mail for many years, my only option. You want late, how about 7 to 10 days? A couple years ago I finally canceled the subscription (after 30 years). I have no complaints about the kindle or anything technical. But, I want the full newspaper, not some annotated version of the newspaper. I started my Chronicle subscription about 5 minutes after I opened the box and took the kindle out. I was really excited. Got up the next morning to read it. Read it cover to cover. That was when I noticed all the missing pieces. This is not my newspaper. It is crap. All the missing stuff, ads, comics, obits, some columns, LOTS more, make a newspaper into a newspaper. I did call Amazon and I now understand that the Chronicle decides what content to put in the kindle version. So, I give the kindle an A+ and the morons on Mission St an F. I am going to spread my joy, I am going to call the Chron and try to track down someone with some semblance of power who will listen to me. Maybe Jon Carroll. Herb Caen would have enjoyed this maybe even put an item in his column. I will probably cancel this subscription and wait for any improvements which are sure to come. Soon I hope.

Love the Kindle version.

I find I actually read a bit more of the paper this way, which I view as a very good thing. No junky ads to interrupt my attention. Paper has always (100% of the time) been on my Kindle by 6am. When I've gotten up earlier, it has been there as well.

No issues at all. Only good things. And what a $$$ saver, as hard copy subscription had just gone up to $455 per year vs $72 on Kindle. My Kindle has been more than paid for with the savings. Not to mention the positive impact on the environment.

I am still in the free trial period but I have just scaled back my home delivery of the printed paper from 7 days a week to Fri/Sat/Sun. As far as I can tell by comparing the print and Kindle versions side by side, the Kindle edition includes all the articles in the printed version, minus the comics, movie listings, ads, and some other features already pointed out by other reviewers. I was paying $44/month for 7-day home delivery, but now I will pay less than half of that for the Fri/Sat/Sun home delivery of the printed paper.

The biggest drawback for me is that the Kindle version includes only some of the photos and illustrations that accompany the print articles. In some cases the accompanying photo(s) is an integral part of the article and the fact that it is not included in the Kindle version detracts from the enjoyment of reading the article. I have not been able to figure out why certain photos/illustrations are included and others left out. Why not just include them all?

In spite of this drawback, I feel that the convenience (and cost savings) are the reasons I will continue my Kindle subscription. For example, this past weekend I was traveling out of state. One night I did not sleep well, so I decided to read. At 3:30am PST on Monday, I turned on my Kindle and was pleasantly surprised to find I was able to read the Monday SF Chronicle "hot off the press".