Were you specifically looking at the "News+" tab in the News app? As far as I can recall nothing in there should have ads -- WSJ has some annoying boxes asking you to subscribe with them that are quite close to ads, but they aren't 3rd party advertising at least. By default I think the app will take you to the "Today" tab, which presents recent news from News+ sources and ad-supported sources alike.

Apple definitely needs to do a better job communicating this, it's not at all obvious from the description of the News+ subscription.

I see ads on articles on the News+ tab. I’m canceling it before my free subscription ends. Very disappointed.

I remember picking up a newspaper recently and being surprised at the cost and the amount of ads. I’m usually very anti-advertisement for paid services, but Apple is following a long tradition here.

Use a dns proxy and https://github.com/froggeric/DNS-blocklists/blob/main/NoAppl...

You may also need to disable Private Relay

When it comes to news, I think NPR and APNews covers most bases. I might be missing out on some news nuance, because I guess I'm not a news junkie.

For your issue with the app, it reminded me of an axe I grind. Whenever possible, I use a bookmark to their website, even if it's mobile.

I think not enough people are challenging themselves to determine "Is the app better than the browser?".

Apps give a privileged and intimate container for that company to control and capture your experience for their brand. Apps let that company run more privileged code on your device than a website could.

I think as a society, we've been conditioned to those app icons over the last 15 years. "There's an app for that". Yeah, but there's a website for almost all of them, too. And I can at-least control how I view it, and if I'm allowed to block ads.