The Globe and Mail has App Troubles

The national newspaper is embroiled in a dispute with its former app developer, Spreed.

A dispute between The Globe and Mail and Spreed Inc., a Toronto-based software developer, shines a spotlight on the digital relationship between media outlets and those who develop mobile applications. For the past two years, the Globe's app was created by Spreed Inc., for what was thought to be a "Globe and Mail" app. It turns out the application readers had downloaded merely featured content from the Globe, which was only discovered when the newspaper launched a new mobile site and the old Globe app suddenly had become an application for a new site called Free Press News. Now Spreed is threatening legal action, claiming the Globe terminated its contract before it ended. In response, the Globe says the agreement was already over.