Apple’s March 25th “It’s Show Time” “marketing event seems to have accomplished its goal,” Edmund Lee reports for The New York Times. “More than 200,000 people subscribed to Apple News Plus in its first 48 hours — more than Texture had amassed at its peak, according to two people with knowledge of the figures who asked not to be named to discuss confidential information.”
“The economics of Apple’s venture will vary from title to title. After the company takes half the subscription price, its partners will split the rest. How much each media company receives is based on the amount of time readers devote to its content,” Lee reports. “That model mimics Spotify and Apple Music, which pay record labels based on how often their tracks are streamed.”
“The visibility of individual articles will depend on Apple’s algorithm, which takes into account a user’s preference — you can ‘follow’ a particular magazine or topic — as well as the judgments of Lauren Kern, the editor in chief of Apple News, and her team,” Lee reports. “Although Ms. Kern provides a link between the news media and Silicon Valley, Apple will also have to get used to the journalists now associated with its team. The New Yorker weighed in on the Cupertino event with a satirical story headlined ‘Tim Cook’s Big Apple Circus.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It seems that Apple News+ is off to an excellent start!
SEE ALSO:
One week with Apple News+ – April 2, 2019
Texture to shut down May 28th; Android users to lose access (unless they upgrade to an Apple device) – March 29, 2019
Apple News+ hands-on: Is it worth $9.99 per month? – March 26, 2019
Apple launches Apple News+ – March 25, 2019
If a person likes to read newspapers and magazines, it sure seems like it’s a good deal. The app runs on all Macs, iPads, and iPhones, so everyone should be satisfied. It kind of weird why anyone would ask if it’s worth it. If I was younger and had an iPad, it would be a no-brainer. A choice of 300 magazines is definitely a wealth of information. Apple should get a lot more subscribers. I’m not sure how many subscribers Apple needs to consider AppleNews Plus a success but I’m sure there will be plenty of critics out there who will claim those numbers are disappointing.
Art mags. please.
While great news, better news would be a significant number staying after the free trial.
They’ll be loosing one, at least, shortly.
and gaining one, at least, shortly.
And didn’t sign up at all, at least now…
I’m a subscriber. I have little interest in the magazines. I hadn’t bought a magazine in years and forgot how much fluff, poorly written articles and ads there were. I’m mostly subscribing for the news articles like WSJ. However disappointed it’s a select amount of curated articles and not full access to WSJ.
We’ll see how I feel in a couple months.
200,000 because the first month is free.
No NYT, no WaPo, no Economist, no FT.
But it does have the Murdoch Street Journal- land of conservative fantasy opinion.
No sale.
Would be great to have the Economist (London), the Financial Times, and NYT. But those are not essential to this being an awesome deal, in light of The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, Wired, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Consumer Reports, The New Yorker, Scientific American. These are some of the best mags available. For $10 per month and “all you can eat” I feel that I’m stealing from these publishers. It would cost 10x that to subscribe to just the handful Imhave mentioned.
200,000 out of one billion (may I note curated) users is 0.02%!
Granted it’s just 48 hours. When it get s to 1% it will indeed be big.
There’s one billion Apple users in US?
You know this service is only available in US
No I didn’t. Same idea. Yes, I have 2 iPads and didn’t even notice. Yes I did upgrade.
If most of the comments here are not proof that this site has turned into an e Bash Apple site ,… then nothing will..
Its ridiculous…Knocking something good for absolutly no good reason.. based on BS negative conjecture.
Why? …. it is so stupid!
Im not against criticizing Apple … not for one second.. but for Gods sake.. please let it make sense first !
Sigh!
You don’t have to agree with me, but it’s a stacked deck. Captive users.
How can an opt-in premium service possibly have captive users?
Same way IE was opt-in, only worse.
It is not about bashing Apple. It is another swing and a miss from Eddie Cue.
The New York Times is the newspaper of record- there is not a serious newsroom in the developed world that does not take it. Close behind is the revitalized Washinton Post and neither is offered here.
This is the same kind of something for nothing proposition as is offered in Apple Music and other services- the syndicators make money on content they do not own and the creators get screwed.
What a deal. No wonder they said, no thanks.
Both of the newspapers you mentioned have strong financial footings and strong subscriber base. They don’t need a 3rd party. Good for them. It’s not as if Apple is blocking them to be part of News+. That does not diminish the value of all the other pubs or the service in general. The staff that creates content doesn’t get screwed. In fact their income potential is increased when more readers are introduced to the system creating more demand and making publishing content more viable. Not sure why everyone is poking holes in this. It is what it is and should be judged on that; not on what it isn’t.
I have done my fair share of Apple bashing on this site, but I signed up for Apple News + and think I’ll keep it after the free month.
I was pleased to see quite a few magazines that interested me in the past, all available on my iPad with just a touch. Plus a few I subscribe to right now.
One thing I’ve noticed is that for the magazines that are formatted especially for Apple News +, the ads aren’t there. Ad-free reading.
Can’t believe people pay to be brainwashed by Leftists.
So National Review, Fox News, and The Hill are leftist? If you don’t like liberal sources, don’t read them; there is plenty of conservative and apolitical material on Apple News and News+. If you don’t like the balance, nobody is making you use Apple News or subscribe to News+.
To Celestairhead and his ilk, everything in the world resides to the left of his extreme position. Then they come to AssJack’s Trump Daily News to hang out with their few friends.
Apple News +.
All the liberal news.
Fit to print.
All in one place.
Now I know you are lying, because NYT and WaPos aren’t there. 🙂
Not to worry, they will follow the liberal propaganda machine. It’s only a matter of time and they will capitulate.