Apple’s forthcoming news service will have to overcome some hurdles

“Apple’s plans to launch a subscription service for news are, by this point, an open secret,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld. “Just under a year ago, the company announced its acquisition of existing magazine subscription service Texture, which Apple executive Eddy Cue quickly revealed would be folded into the existing Apple News app.”

“The big news of the past week has, of course, been that Apple has been jockeying for a 50/50 revenue split with its news service partners,” Moren writes. “But if Apple’s news service does end up being as dominant as some of the company’s other offerings, the question is whether publishers can afford not to join?”

MacDailyNews Take: For many (most) publishers, 50% of something is better than the nothing they are getting now.

Moren writes, “Setting aside exactly how much publishers stand to reap from the service, there also remains the matter of how much users are willing to shell out for a news subscription service.”

MacDailyNews Take: US$9.99 max. or, better yet, part of a bundle that includes Apple Music and the soon-to-debut Apple video streaming service.

“Compared to the previous obstacles, this one’s fairly minor, but have you used the Apple News app on the Mac? It’s…underwhelming, to say the least,” Moren writes. “Updating the Apple News app on the Mac to make it feel more at home on the computer would go a ways to making this service feel like it’s something Apple’s serious about.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Oh, yes, as we all know, the Mac is a high priority for Tim Cook’s Apple. Remember, they “love the Mac*,” so Apple News is surely likely to become a first-class Mac app instead of a half-assed port from iOS any day now.

*they just don’t love keeping them up to date

SEE ALSO:
Apple plans star-studded March 25th event to unveil video and news subscription services – February 13, 2019
Apple is targeting April to launch its new video service – February 13, 2019
Apple to hold special media event on March 25th – February 12, 2019
Publishers chafe at Apple’s terms for subscription news service – February 12, 2019
Oprah Winfrey hires Terry Wood from Netflix to head up Apple’s original content production – February 7, 2019
Apple patent application for Apple TV interface reveals aspects of live TV streaming service – February 5, 2019
Morgan Stanley: Apple can return to $1 trillion market value this year with new media bundling, video streaming services – February 4, 2019
Apple’s deep bench of original programming continues to grow – January 18, 2019
Apple to relaunch Texture magazine subscription service as soon as spring 2019 – December 12, 2018
Apple to shut down Texture’s Windows app in July – May 4, 2018
Apple is rumored to be eying Condé Nast acquisition – May 1, 2018
Amazon considered buying Texture before Apple bit – March 13, 2018
Apple pushes deeper into news – March 13, 2018
Apple to acquire Next Issue Media and its digital magazine-subscription service Texture – March 12, 2018

8 Comments

  1. I consume way more news on my iPhone than on any other platform. Apple News is the app I check first, followed by FlipBoard and the New360. I spend more time on that screen. When I sit down at my Mac, it’s to work on a certain task, not to read news.

    1. Internet news faces the same problem that Internet porn does. Before the Internet both were in demand.

      Post Internet, both are FREE!

      I ask you, how can you get someone to pay for air?

  2. I can only imagine how much Wall Street thinks this Service isn’t going to be very successful. I sure hope Apple has an application that will run on MacOSX computers to use these subscription services. It would be foolish for Apple to limit services to just iOS and AppleTV.

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