NetNewsWire was developed by Brent and Sheila Simmons for their company Ranchero Software. It was introduced on July 12, 2002, with NetNewsWire Lite, a free version missing some advanced features of the version, introduced some weeks later. Version 1.0 was released on February 11, 2003, and version 2.0 was released in May 2005. At that time it included custom feed views, custom downloading and opening of podcasts, synchronization of feeds and feed status between computers, Bloglines support, and a built-in tabbed browser. In October 2005, NewsGator bought NetNewsWire, bringing their NewsGator Online RSS synchronization service to the Mac. Brent Simmons was hired by NewsGator to continue developing the software. NetNewsWire 3.0 was released on June 5, 2007. The version added Spotlight indexing of news items, integration with iCal, iPhoto, Address Book, and VoodooPad, Growl support, a new user interface, performance enhancements, and more. The application was originally shareware, but became free with the release of NetNewsWire 3.1 on January 10, 2008. NetNewsWire Lite was discontinued at the same time. NetNewsWire 3.2 moved to an advertisement-supported model, with an option to purchase the application to remove ads. An iOS version of NetNewsWire with support for the iPhone, iPod Touch and later for the iPad was released on the first day of the App Store. It included syncing of unread articles with the desktop version. NetNewsWire Lite 4.0 was introduced on March 3, 2011 on the Mac App Store. While it misses several of the advanced features included in NetNewsWire 3.2, it includes a completely rewritten code base. In the future, this will be used in the iOS versions of the app and for NetNewsWire 4.0 which will be shareware again. On June 3, 2011, the acquisition of NetNewsWire by Black Pixel was announced. For two years development had been apparently stalled, with a gap in updates from 2011 through the release of the version 4 Open Beta. On June 24, 2013, NetNewsWire 4.0 was announced and released as an open beta by Black Pixel. This announcement also brought news that the product would be a commercial product, with no free component. The final release of NetNewsWire 4.0 occurred on September 3, 2015. In 2017 support of JSON Feed was added into the code base. On August 31, 2018, Black Pixel announced that they have returned the NetNewsWire intellectual property to Brent Simmons. On September 1, 2018, Brent Simmons released NetNewsWire 5.0d1. It was a renamed version of his open source Mac RSS reader 'Evergreen'. Almost a year later, NetNewsWire 5.0 was released on August 26, 2019. On December 22, 2019, Brent Simmons started a public beta for the NetNewsWire iOS app. The iOS version of NetNewsWire 5.0 was released March 9, 2020.
Reception
NetNewsWire was well regarded by many users and reviewers. According to FeedBurner, NetNewsWire was the most popular desktop newsreader on all platforms in 2005. The software received a Macworld Editor's Choice Award in 2003 and 2005 and maintained a 4.8 out of five stars rating among reviewers at VersionTracker. Ars Technica called NetNewsWire's built-in browser "hands-down the best of any Mac newsreader," and Walter Mossberg, technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, said that NetNewsWire is his favorite for the Mac. NetNewsWire 5.0 was also received well. MacStories praised the RSS reader's search engine and general stability, but lamented that some advanced features and customization options had not made it into the release, calling 5.0 "a solid foundation for the future". Gizmodo wrote that NetNewsWire 5.0 was off to a promising start, but agreed that it lacked some of the features that might be expected by a power user.
