Apple News stands as a colossal player in the global news ecosystem, marking itself as the top choice for news consumption in regions like the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia. By 2020, it had attracted over 125 million users monthly. The launch of News+ in 2019, following Apple’s acquisition of the startup Texture—famously dubbed the “Netflix of magazines”—marked a significant deepening of Apple’s ties with news publishers.
The News+ subscription service invites users to delve into a wide array of premium articles from leading magazines and newspapers for $12.99 a month. This service aggregates continually updated stories from prestigious American news outlets and magazines, including but not limited to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the BBC, and the LA Times. The past couple of years have seen a surge in partnerships with local and regional newspapers, dramatically increasing the platform’s reach.
Apple News+ cleverly licenses content from publishers, compensating them based on the audience’s engagement time per article. Furthermore, publishers have the autonomy to monetize their content through advertisements and retain all earnings from affiliate link revenue, enhancing the platform’s allure.
Though Apple keeps the subscription numbers under wraps, the platform’s appeal to publishers is unmistakable. For some, like Slate, Apple News functions as a powerful discovery engine that introduces and reintroduces their work to a broader audience, fostering loyalty in and out of their native ecosystems. For others, the collaboration with Apple shapes their content strategy significantly, especially through Apple’s Spotlight program which encourages content centered around specific themes or events.
This symbiotic relationship extends to the realm of exclusive content creation for Apple News+, fostering a nurturing environment for brands to flourish. As partnerships with Apple deepen, they herald a new era of content distribution synergy, benefiting publishers and readers alike.