Apple News iOS 10 update major driver of traffic to The Telegraph, users more engaged with content

Apple News is proving to be a success story for venues fully invested in it, with The Telegraph seeing readers coming from the service spending more time on articles, and greater numbers of articles read per user.

"Apple News consumers are proving to be a rich part of the funnel driving into our owned and operated platforms," said Robert Bridge, chief customer officer at The Telegraph Media Group in an interview with Digiday. "And that's the hope, right? That you extend your reach through these products, then you migrate the audience into your core products."

While The Telegraph has been involved in Apple News since the September 2015 launch of the service, an increase in readership has been dramatic since the iOS 10 update.

"The main growth has been driven by the iOS 10 update and a combination of our new strategy," said Bridge. "In the modern age, people look to consume content through notifications. That doesn't mean they will always open them and click through."

The largest change for readers was the Apple News redesign in iOS 10. First shown at the 2016 WWDC, iOS 10 emphasizes individual stories and breaks articles into clear sections, including Top Stories, Trending, and topics based on the user's preference.

The iOS 10 update also introduced subscriptions, allowing users to read entire issues of publications.

The Telegraph publishes approximately 240 articles per day — about 80 percent of its overall content. The remainder is for paid subscribers.

Bridge notes that 65 percent of readers who use the outlet's app who were referred by Apple News return to the app more than five times a month.

11 Comments

firelock 241 comments · 11 Years

About 7 years ago

I'm a big fan of Apple News. Glad to hear it is working out better than Newstand.

mike1 3430 comments · 10 Years

I generally like News. However, I do wish it would only feed me articles from the publications I have as favorites. Tired of seeing "Trending" headlines from sites I would never read. Should be able to fully personalize the content myself.

cali 3494 comments · 10 Years

Stopped using it when it kept redirecting me to article websites. What's the point? This makes it no different than searching news on a browser.

also the recommended articles are annoying and search is terrible. If you search "app" the first recommendation is "bon appetite" not apps, not Apple but some random cooking thing that starts with "bon".
(I know what bon appetite means, that's not the point)

*if these issues have been fixed I'd love to return.

JinTech 1048 comments · 9 Years

cali said:

Stopped using it when it kept redirecting me to article websites. What's the point? This makes it no different than searching news on a browser.

I don't think this is the fault of Apple though but the source of the news organization. I tend to agree though. Other than that, I like it.

jSnively 396 comments · 13 Years

firelock said:

I'm a big fan of Apple News. Glad to hear it is working out better than Newstand.

As someone who works at an independent publisher (especially this one) my feelings on Apple News are... complex. We've run afoul of them a couple times already just due to the nature of our content. I worry greatly about the balance of power there, should it become a significant slice of traffic. Thankfully? Right now we're not seeing anything like the numbers the Telegraph does.

To be honest, all these non-interoperable closed gardens make me really nervous. Though as of right now, by the numbers at least, AMP scares me a lot more than Apple News does. That's a whole separate topic though.

That's not to say AN is a bad platform or app or user experience, because I don't think it is, but it's far from a perfect solution too. That's my ramble.