Seems to be specific to iOS 8x
Repro steps
- Turn Airplane Mode ON
- In the apps go to some Saved articles - just general browsing. Stay on Saved pages, Recent, or one of the Saved articles
- Turn Airplane Mode OFF and go the Explore page - see the screenshot below (taken on iPad mini iOS 8.2).
Note: Sometime, those blank placeholders are briefly displayed during back navigation to the Explore page in offline mode.