William Gallagher
News publishers surveyed about the Apple News app report poor sales despite being able to reach 90 million readers, and claim that Apple News is failing to display the number of ads expected.
A sample of seven major publishers contributing to Apple News claims that all report extremely low sales of advertising around their stories and also unusually low numbers of ads being shown to readers in the first place. In the survey by Digiday, one publisher said they earn less than $1,000 per month while another quoted "low five-figures" monthly.
Publishers can sell their own ads but advertisers are seemingly not buying. One reason is said to be because of Apple's "limited user targeting" which means publishers can't track readers in order to sell them more relevant ads.
When an ad space isn't sold directly by the publisher, Apple News sells it via NBCUniversal which offers publishers a rate of between $3 and $4 per thousand clicks. According to the publishers surveyed, this is a reasonable rate, but not enough ads are being shown to make it profitable.
The number of times an ad is shown is called the fill rate. A 100 percent fill rate means an ad was shown to a reader every time it could be. Digiday reports that one publisher saw a fill rate of around 20 percent.
That source is then quoted as explaining that this "atrociously low" number means publishing on Apple News is less profitable than Google or even Facebook Instant Articles.
Apple News app on iPhoneOther publishers surveyed had better results, and while none significantly better, every publisher reported that their overall audience has grown in the last year.
None of this would bode well for Apple's forthcoming subscription service, currently believed to be called "Apple News Magazines." Publishers are reportedly balking because of Apple's revenue demands.
However, one existing Apple News publisher told Digiday that the subscriptions they were able to get via the current service was good. "We've been pleasantly surprised with the revenue from subscriptions," the unnamed publisher said.
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Andrew O'Hara
Amber Neely
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Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
19 Comments
Frankly. What else should publishers say?
yea we are super happy with the split, actually we would be happy to get less?
the only way to get more in a negotiation is to be unhappy with the current offer...
Why would anyone want news selected by Apple? There is no demand for this. Particularly when Apple is not objective and completely open with respect to news. Apple has a political agenda and its pre-selected sources reflect that bias. Most people have the wherewithal to get the news from the sources they deem reliable without the screening of a Big Brother tech company.
As a consumer I have a hard time mustering sympathy for publishers. As a semi-disinterested observer, I can understand their gripe. 9to5 detailed their issues a little better.
"Publishers said there were three problems with Apple News monetization.
First, Apple’s privacy focus means they can’t take advantage of the most profitable form of advertising: highly targeted ads.
Second, Apple also prohibits the use of something known as ‘programmatic advertising’ – when ads are sold by software rather than human beings. This also rules out real-time bidding, when ads sold to the highest bidder in automated auctions.
Third, while Apple claims that it will sell any unsold ad slots, it has a terrible track-record for achieving this, leaving anywhere from 75% to 85% of slots unsold." - 9to5mac
That sounds like a terrible business proposition. But hey, if they want to deal with Apple they know they have to put on their big boy pants.