Firm Management
Apps We Love: News & Information Apps
Our computers and smart phones put the world at our doorstep and allow us to watch stories unfold all over the planet. We no longer have to rely on our local newspapers and television reporters to give us the whole story.
Apr. 18, 2016
It’s a heady time for news junkies. Our computers and smart phones put the world at our doorstep and allow us to watch stories unfold all over the planet. We no longer have to rely on our local newspapers and television reporters to give us the whole story. Not only can we go directly to the sources ourselves for the latest updates, we can read first-person accounts from observers, we can compare reports from competing news sources, we can watch images and videos and read commentary all over social media, and we can even make personal connections with the participants in the events.
But we know you’re busy and probably don’t have time for that deep dive into every bit of breaking news. So we checked in with members of the CPA Practice Advisor community and asked them to share their favorite news apps. We turned up a lot of the usual suspects, including The Wall Street Journal app, The New York Times, USA Today, and CNN. We also found out about some other gems. Here’s what we discovered.
Kerri Gibson of Wolters Kluwer CCH and several others we contacted rely on Flipboard. “It’s a fun, easy to use news aggregator that pulls out not only the top news stories but also pieces based on your customized interests. The daily digest of top stories means not only do I stay caught up, I get to read perspectives from sources I might have otherwise missed.” Gibson also recommends the NPR News App. “They have both articles and live streaming. I can listen to my favorite NPR stations no matter where in the world I am which keeps me connected to home and world events in one place.”
Sandra Wiley of Boomer Consultants uses Flipboard “to aggregate my news and pull in items for specific topics I am tracking. I can literally flip through the topics and the news sources to find the items that are most interesting or relevant to me.”
There are magazine apps that allow you to subscribe, purchase individual copies, read free articles, and search. Wiley uses Texture, “to read various magazines I love – in the cloud.” Rick Richardson, CPA.CITP, CGMA, of Richardson Media & Technologies likes Zinio for his e-mags, and he added, “I also like Pocket to act as an intermediate store of interesting stuff that gets filed later.”
Chris Frederiksen, CPA, of Frederiksen & Company and Panalitix USA, told us he sticks with the BBC News app. “Why? Because it’s independent, neutral and reliable and thankfully devoid of political bias.” Kacee Johnson of Blue Ocean Principles agrees. “I prefer the BBC news app so that I get global alerts rather than just localized content. Their app is easy without a lot of ads and they don’t do too many push notifications.”
Michael J. Devereux, CPA, CMP, of Mueller Prost, told us he uses The Hill app, “to keep me abreast of what’s happening within the Federal government (both with tax legislation and other issues affecting our clients).”
Jim Bourke, CPA.CITP, CFF, CGMA, of WithumSmith+Brown, said, “Hands down….the absolute best news app ever just dropped last month! It’s called Quartz. It delivers news in a whole new way…conversational style. You absolutely MUST check it out….”
David Cieslak, CPA.CITP, GSEC, of Arxis Technology, mentions that his go-to news apps include AP News and Yahoo News Digest, and the radio app Stitcher – “curated content presented in the order I like. It’s my morning/drive-time radio – or whenever I’m on the go. If I have a bit more time to listen, I let Stitcher chose content – always something new and interesting to learn!”
Brian Friedman, CPA.CITP, of CCH Tax & Accounting Software, turns to Twitter. “Twitter has become the place I go for immediate news and response to that news.”
Randy Johnston of K2 Enterprises and Network Management Group, Inc., sent us a lengthy list of news apps he likes, including the Economist app. “Besides the weekly technology section, the Technology Quarterly has key topics covered with some depth. You can count on a business view of technology from this source, PLUS it is typically written from a UK point of view rather than a U.S. point of view, which is usually more factual and less sensational than our major news sources.”
“Call me old-school, but I lived and breathed Google Reader until they killed it. So now I use Feedly to collect all my RSS feeds,” said Rick Telberg of CPA Trendlines Research and Bay Street Group.
Geni Whitehouse of Even a Nerd Can Be Heard, relies on LinkedIn Pulse, the professional news digest, as does Jennifer Wilson of ConvergenceCoaching.
I’ll wrap this up with a few of my favorites: I love TheSkimm – a daily newsletter that provides the headlines you don’t want to miss with a bit of humor and reality thrown in for good measure. I also check in frequently with Trends24 – the app that keeps you tuned in to what is trending on Twitter. Business Insider lets me customize my news for the topics and categories I’m most interested in following.
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Apps We Love is Sponsored by AccountantsWorld.