Apple News format updates with custom channel art & support for older stories

Apple on Tuesday updated the official Apple News Format with several improvements geared toward making News more publisher-friendly, particularly for outlets just signing on.

Channels can, for example, now adopt a custom graphic for their channel cover, which appears in various places throughout the News app. Previously Apple limited this privilege to special partners, which resulted in regular channels defaulting to images from recent stories.

Publishers can also insert older stories into their channels via a new "datePublished" property in metadata. This will prevent an old item from appearing as new, which can potentially create chaos and confuse or anger readers.

Other changes include new Map and Place components, which can be used to highlight areas and/or specific buildings and landmarks in articles.

Lastly, stories can now include remote images linked via HTTP or HTTPS, instead of just bundled content.

Changes to Apple News have been gradual throughout 2016, the biggest development being the opening up of its publishing tools in March. Later this year, Apple should finally fix and restore access to reader metrics, which were disabled after a glitch was discovered.

6 Comments

coolfactor 20 Years · 2342 comments

About 8 years ago

First "link" in article is not functional.

robin huber 22 Years · 4026 comments

I like News, but am increasingly irritated by clicking on a story only to find:

1) I have to go somewhere else to read more than just a tease,
2) Have to subscribe ($) to read it,
3) It's not a text story, but a video.

Apple should not allow "teases." If a story shows up on Apple News it should be complete and in the app.

kevin kee 10 Years · 1289 comments

robin huber said:

I like News, but am increasingly irritated by clicking on a story only to find:

1) I have to go somewhere else to read more than just a tease,
2) Have to subscribe ($) to read it,
3) It's not a text story, but a video.

Apple should not allow "teases." If a story shows up on Apple News it should be complete and in the app.

The good news, I couldn't find these problems and so I suspect they are far in between. All the news that I found are free, complete and readable within the app itself.

propod 18 Years · 67 comments

robin huber said:

I like News, but am increasingly irritated by clicking on a story only to find:

1) I have to go somewhere else to read more than just a tease,
2) Have to subscribe ($) to read it,
3) It's not a text story, but a video.

Apple should not allow "teases." If a story shows up on Apple News it should be complete and in the app.

1. Continue with the scrolling from down to up and it will open the site within the app. Swipe from left to right to get back.