Apple News: Alleged expansion into further countries planned
For a long time, it seemed as if Apple was not pursuing any major goals with its News+ news service. But now there is supposedly some movement again.
(Image: Apple)
Apple is reportedly planning to expand its news service, Apple News, to other countries. In the UK, where Apple News has already been launched, it is also planned to include local reporting and the puzzle section in the service in the future. This would be the first time in five years that the service's distribution area has been expanded. A long time to wait, although according to media reports, Apple is said to be quite successful with its offering.
Citing unnamed sources within the company, the Financial Times reports that Apple currently has around 125 million monthly users in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia. Around 450 publishers provide content for the subscription service, which was launched five years ago with 300 suppliers. A team of 100 editors in California, New York, London, and Sydney curate the content, some of which is also fed automatically.
Most used news app
Apple News, which was launched almost ten years ago, is the most used news app in the four markets. However, this is also because it is pre-installed on iPhones and therefore has an advantage over other news apps. The revenue that Apple News generates from advertising and subscription sales for News+ flows into Apple's services division, which also includes Apple Pay, iCloud and Apple TV+. News+ costs just under 13 US dollars per month.
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The Apple News app was the successor to Newsstand, an attempt by Apple in the early years of the iPad to establish a kind of newsstand where publishers could offer their publications. In contrast to other apps, Newsstand apps were able to display the current cover image of a publication on a kind of wooden shelf instead of the app icon. With iOS 9 came the News app, which instead obtained news content via RSS or Atom feeds. Five years ago, in 2019, the Apple News+ subscription service was launched, allowing media companies to market their paid content via Apple.
Media companies and Apple: a special relationship
According to the Financial Times, media companies have a mixed relationship with Apple's service. It is a good source of income, and Apple passes on between 70 and 100 percent of advertising revenue to publishers. News+ revenue is split according to the time spent reading articles, and occasional users in particular appreciate not having to take out dozens of subscriptions. As in other industries, however, the media industry fears that Apple could gain too much control over the market and cannibalize its subscribers. Apple also attaches great importance to data protection, which makes targeted advertising targeting difficult for publishers.
(mki)
