Apple may launch premium Apple News subscriptions in spring, but getting weak publisher response
Roger Fingas
Apple is reportedly aiming to relaunch Texture as a premium subscription option within Apple News, possibly as soon this spring, but is encountering stiff reactions from publishers.
Some industry executives are concerned that Apple's service — which in its current form as Texture, lets people read a wide range of magazines for $9.99 per month — will rob them of subscribers since Texture/Apple News will be cheaper, according to Bloomberg. One person likened Apple's approach to journalism as loving a toy so much they break it.
An Apple team headed by VP Eddy Cue and former Conde Nast executive Liz Schimel has been meeting with media executives in the past few months to try to convince them otherwise, one source said. The argument is that subscriber growth with Texture/Apple News could actually surpass what publications achieve on their own, and may replicate the success of Apple Music.
Publishers are expected to be paid based on how much time readers spend with their articles. Aesthetically, those articles will take on a conventional online format, rather than the recreation of print Texture currently uses.
Apple is trying to lure prominent newspapers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg sources added, backing outside reports.
The Texture buyout was a surprise announcement ahead of Cue's appearance at SXSW in March. Since then Apple has done relatively little with it beyond changing to a flat pricing scheme and shutting down a native Windows app, forcing people to turn to iOS or Android.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Marko Zivkovic
David Schloss
Wesley Hilliard
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
18 Comments
I thought Apple was spending resources ferreting out fake news sources. Why, then, would Bloomberg even be considered?
The comparison to Apple Music is faulty because Apple actually *likes* music and has made it an important component going all the way back the original iPod. News? Not so much.
Apple is a dilettante when it comes to news. It's just not that invested in sticking with it, but rather making great noises every six months or so to give the appearance of treating news like it does music. The original Newsstand was good that failed because Apple didn't care about it too much and it withered on the vine. Then we were all supposed to be wowed by Apple News which is just a big RSS feed whose biggest selling point was "how beautiful it looked." If you have an Apple News channel, you still need to use a browser to upload stories. There is no native app on macOS or iOS. Hell, you can't even *schedule* a story being posted.
News outlets are right to be wary. Tech companies and news have proven to be oil and water, as you have a generation of young know-nothings who sneer at journalism and print media but insist they have the answer to save both (a topic that is now over a decade old with no end in sight.) And it seems to be eluding people (particularly techie boyz) that journalism is not only hard, but takes resources and goes far beyond mere political punditry.
Otherwise, I'm fairly indifferent to Apple News.
Magazine and news publishers need to make more money to survive, period. So if this format doesn't do that, then it's a waste of time for them. They also can't afford to commit to formats that end up losing them money versus what they already do.
The usual Business week Reuter’s bashing and ill conceived opinions trying to write them down as facts. (Unreal news companies for the highest bidder).
Ugh! Get Eddy Cue out of Apple already!