“Since it launched last September, Apple Inc.’s News app has attracted more than 100 publishing partners world-wide hoping to capitalize on the growing consumption of news on mobile devices,” Jack Marshall and Steven Perlberg report for The Wall Street Journal. “There is one major problem: Neither media companies nor Apple know how many people are reading.”
“The company mistakenly has been underestimating the number of readers using the News app since its launch, and passing that inaccurate information on to publishers,” Marshall and Perlberg report. “Publishers don’t pay to post their content to the News app, but getting an accurate tally of users is important because it can affect their ability to sell advertising and to manage their resources accordingly.”
“Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said the company missed the error as it focused on other aspects of the product. The company didn’t explain how the problem occurred or say exactly when it might be rectified,” Marshall and Perlberg report. “‘We’re in the process of fixing that now, but our numbers are lower than reality,’ he said. ‘We don’t know what the right number is…’ Mr. Cue said he was surprised by the extent to which publishers call on Apple to handle ad sales. He said Apple has accelerated the development of its iAd network and expects to launch a self-service ad-buying platform in the next two months to help increase ad spending. Despite the setbacks, publishers remain hopeful about the potential of the service and say Apple has been responsive to their feedback.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mistakes happen, but, recently, there have been far too many happening at Apple Inc.
May 2016 be far, far better than 2015! One thing for Apple employees to keep in mind in ’16:
Execution matters. Pretty videos only go so far.
We expect a lot. So, deliver a lot. Not like 2015. Don’t deliver yet another thing that “holds great promise.” Certainly do not deliver important products with no stock at launch or for months afterwards (“Tim Cook, operations genius” – oh, really now?). Don’t deliver half-baked UIs, either. Pretend that Steve is staring/glaring over your shoulder.
Knock our socks off, Apple!
No pressure.
Ch- Ch- Changes…
Very apt this morning with Bowie passing.
Is Eddy Cue really worth $25 million per year? I don’t see it. I don’t see that level of quality work to merit such exorbitant pay.
It’s quite possible that without Steve Jobs’ help, Eddy Cue couldn’t get ink in a stationery store. – MacDailyNews, Nov. 5, 2015
Just remember he couldn’t close those TV deals even with Steve Jobs.
But I do worry. If Apple TV is the next big thing (and it should be), why is it still so limited?
How do you know the TV deals wouldn’t be done if we were so lucky as to still have Steve Jobs here among us, soothsayer?
They’ve been trying to crack TV since 2007.
Jobs tried, and couldn’t get the deals they needed. Could he do it now? We’ll never know.
could Jobs “do it now?”
gee,
NOT,
we all know he could not do it now….Steve had foresight and ability in spades, Instead, we now have the opportunity to see what his spin on the universe pans out to be in the big picture (next decade or two??)
I wouldn’t pay him that much, but then again, I don’t get to make the call.
Personally, I don’t think that any corporate officer should be paid 250 times (or much, much more in some cases) the salary of a good engineer or scientist. In my opinion, corporate Boards of Directors play fast and loose with shareholder money, especially in cash rich situations like Apple. BoDs are also far too generous with stock awards.
While I value the skills and experience of these individuals, I do not think that any of them should earn, for example, more than $5M to $10M per year in direct compensation. And stock awards should be limited, for example, to 50% of base salary per year. Those awards represent dilution of the common stock. I fully admit that I pulled those numbers from the nether regions. but they seem reasonable to me given their responsibilities. Since money tends to make money, they can save and invest to accumulate a nest egg, just like the rest of us have to do.
Please keep in mind that these are regular people with certain talents, skills, and experience. Very few approach deity status, like the late Steve Jobs, who could reputedly spin gold from straw. As you often see in professional sports, there are many people in subordinate roles who are just as capable, if not more capable, than the incumbents. In many cases, they just need an opportunity to shine. Apple should “Think Different” about how it hires and promotes talent, from top to bottom.
I argued a long time ago (and many times since then) that Tim Cook was overcompensated. I like the guy, but those stock awards were ridiculous. It did not seem likely that he would jump ship and lose the CEO opportunity at Apple, even without a huge retaining bonus. You don’t issue lavish salaries just because the corporation is highly profitable. And the massive disparities in compensation between high level management and the working folks who are doing most of the work breeds resentment and eats away at the company.
Steve Jobs was an anomaly, a rare talent who deserved special recognition and substantial compensation. There are very few of that type, and we tend to significantly overvalue the rest for some reason.
Before 1980, the typical American CEO made about 40 times more than the average worker at their company, same as in other countries. Today, the typical American CEO makes 400 times more than the average employee.
Are CEOs 10 times better than they were? Or is the system completely out of whack? What do you think…
The 2007 deliberate perpetration of what became ‘The Great Recession’ ripped off the mask. Derangement beneath.
I gave up on AppleNews as the smallest levels of customization such as being able to change the order of news sources was not possible Ouch. I keep hoping that future versions will make it more user friendly which is an oxymoron when we talk about an Apple product.
Articles should have a Tinder-like swipe left for more articles like this, swipe right for fewer articles like this. Then it could learn.
Another screw up within Eddy Cue’s org. This is embarrassing. How this guy is one of the highest paid employees at Apple is beyond me.
Eddy Cue doesn’t do anything well and what he does do, he does badly, but he’s CUBAN and that counts on Tim Cook’s DIVERSITY counter, so he stays and gets richly rewarded. If he were a black woman, he��d get double.
Are you really this much of a racist jerk, or are you trying to be funny?? Either way, please STFU.
I have given up getting my news from Twitter and now use Apple News.
While I don’t like the mistakes either, I do like and use Apple News. Very much. It’s a good product.
What it really needs is a good App for the Mac.
Don’t forget the guy who brought you to the dance, Apple.
MDN: Mistakes happen, but, recently, there have been far too many happening at Apple Inc.
Yup. Yup. Yup.
There’s Apple Bear Bullshit.
But then there are the
Cold
Hard
Facts.
“FOCUS!”
Still waiting for a chance to actually USE Apple News. Probably coming to the frozen tundra of Canada any month now…