Frequently asked questions

A topic is a cluster of articles about the same event on the same day — for example, "Tuesday's Fed rate decision". A topicgroup is the longer story those topics are part of — for example, "the 2026 Fed rate-cut cycle". Click a topic and you can step backward through the topicgroup to see how the story unfolded.

Yes. The free tier gives you today's topics and the topicgroup for each. The paid tiers unlock saved items, search, past dates, and notification controls. See the pricing page for what's in each.

The contact page. We read every message and reply within a day or two.

Check your spam folder. If it's not there, the resend verification page will send a fresh one. If that still doesn't work, reach out via the contact page with the email you registered with and we'll sort it out.

Use the forgot password page; we'll email you a reset link that expires in 10 minutes.

Not from the website today. Email us via the contact page and we'll do it manually. Self-serve email/username change is a planned v1.x improvement.

Not from the website today. Email us via the contact page with your account email and we'll delete the account and associated data (the GDPR right-to-be-forgotten flow). Self-serve account deletion is on the roadmap.

On the website: Stripe (credit/debit cards) and PayPal. On Android: Google Play through the Simply The News Android app. The web checkout flow only offers the website providers; if you're on Android, please subscribe through the app.

Within 14 days of a charge, yes — contact us via the contact page with your account email and the charge date and we'll process a refund. After 14 days, the standard end-of-period cancellation applies: you keep access until the period ends and no further charges are made.

You'll keep access for a grace period while the payment processor retries. After the retries are exhausted, the subscription moves to a past-due state and the website will ask you to update your payment method. If payment can't be collected within ~30 days of the failed renewal, the subscription is suspended and you'll be moved to the Free tier.

Not automatically in-place today. To switch: cancel the current plan (you keep access until the period ends), then subscribe to the other plan from the pricing page. The new plan starts when the old one ends. (In-place plan switching is on the roadmap.)

Go to your account page and click the Cancel subscription button. You'll keep full access until the end of your current billing period, and the cancellation takes effect automatically when that period ends. You can also cancel from the upgrade page; both buttons call the same backend endpoint.

Subscriptions created through PayPal's Billing Agreements API (which we use) are managed by the merchant — us. PayPal's website is telling you that the cancel button for your subscription lives on our site, not on PayPal's. To cancel, go to your account page on Simply The News. The cancellation is processed automatically; you don't need to email or message us.

Cancellation is end-of-period, not immediate. When you click Cancel subscription, your subscription is scheduled to end on the last day of your current billing period (you can see that date on your account page). You keep full access — saved items, search, past dates, notifications — until then. We do this so a stray click doesn't immediately take away what you paid for.

Once you've cancelled, you can't reactivate the same subscription through the website — the subscription will end on its scheduled date. To keep using Simply The News after that date, you can subscribe again from the pricing page; the new subscription will start fresh. (A "reactivate" button is a future improvement we're considering.)