Apple is introducing several new features for Apple News and Apple News+, including audio stories of some of the best feature stories from Apple News+, a daily audio news briefing hosted by Apple News editors, and curated local news collections beginning in five cities and regions and expanding to more areas in the future. Apple News is also adding more top local and regional news outlets for readers and subscribers, including The Charlotte Observer, the Miami Herald, and The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina).
“Apple News showcases so much great journalism, and we’re excited to help bring it to life in new ways with Apple News+ audio stories and a new daily news show, Apple News Today,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News. “We also greatly value our many local news partners — our new local news feature highlights their work for readers who live, and are interested, in those communities.”
Apple News+ Audio Stories
Beginning today, Apple News will produce about 20 audio stories a week across a wide range of interests. Narrated by professional voice actors, these are audio versions of some of the best feature reporting and long-form pieces published by Esquire, Essence, Fast Company, GQ, New York magazine, Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, and more, and newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Audio stories are now available to Apple News+ subscribers in the US.
Apple News Today
With Apple News Today, a daily audio news briefing, Apple News editors and co-hosts Shumita Basu and Duarte Geraldino guide listeners through some of the most fascinating stories in the news — and how the world’s best journalists are covering them. Apple News Today is free to all listeners and available mornings Monday through Friday directly in the News app in the US and on Apple Podcasts.
Audio stories and Apple News Today can both be found in the newly added Audio tab, located at the bottom of the News app, where users can manage their queue and get personalized recommendations. Both new audio features are available on iPhone, iPod touch, and CarPlay.
Apple also introduced support for the News app in CarPlay, so users can listen to audio stories and Apple News Today while driving. Users will be able to sync listening progress across devices: Start listening to an audio story with CarPlay from your iPhone and pick up listening to or reading it later at home.
Curated Local News
Apple News introduced a new curated local news experience currently available in the Bay Area, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, featuring a variety of content from a diverse collection of local publishers, including a major newspaper in each city and region. Local news collections in Apple News include coverage of topics most important to local communities, such as sports, dining and restaurants, weather, news and politics, and more, with curation by local Apple News editors as well as personalization for each user.
Even More Local News
Apple News recently added even more top local and regional newspapers to the Apple News+ catalog: A subscription to Apple News+ in the US now includes access to The Charlotte Observer, the Idaho Statesman, The Kansas City Star, the Miami Herald, The News & Observer, and The State (Columbia, South Carolina). In Canada, leading French-language newspaper Le Devoir is now available to Apple News+ subscribers, and The Globe and Mail, one of the country’s most prestigious national newspapers, will be available to subscribers later this summer.
Apple News draws over 125 million monthly active users in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada, and has revolutionized how people access news from all their favorite sources. Apple News+ is a single subscription that provides access to written and audio content from hundreds of the world’s top magazines and major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as many local and regional newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Pricing and Availability
Apple News is available for free in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada on iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices. To access the new audio features, users must update to iOS 13.6. To access the new local news features, users must update to iOS 13.6, iPadOS 13.6, and macOS 10.15.6.
Apple News+ is available in the US for $9.99 a month, Canada for $12.99 CAD a month, the UK for £9.99 a month, and Australia for $14.99 AUD a month. Customers can sign up for a free one-month trial, and the plan automatically renews after the trial ends. To subscribe to Apple News+, customers must update to iOS 12.2 or later and macOS 10.14.4 or later. Through Family Sharing, up to six family members can share one Apple News+ subscription.
MacDailyNews Take: Audio news junkies, rejoice!
Apple certainly knows how to screw up a great concept. The point of reading the news is to read the news. We get magazines to read. We get enough video rammed down our throat. Take Apple TV for example. Great to get movies, TV, and music. That was not good enough to buy or rent from Apple. We now get every freaking channel or “content” provider jamming us with contrived trash on their “channel” in Apple TV. What have we gained from cutting the cord…?
So now Apple News+ wants to give us just what we cannot get from 3 billion other video or audio sources—yes, video and audio. Way to go Apple. I guess the world has dumbed down to the point where we no longer need to read. We just listen and watch…
Apple News+ would have been great if they had succeeded in getting the newspapers, both local and national, to sign in for one fee. That was not good enough for news services like the Washington Post who wanted us to pay even more for Bezos propaganda. Is there such a thing as unbiased news anymore?
WaP is all of $6/month. Too much for you??
You hit the nail on the head with the “just listen and watch” part. The mass media overlords don’t want you to read too much, maybe just the short, crap “articles” mostly written by robots from what I can tell. Better that you just sit back, relax and allow yourself to be programmed by short audio and video propaganda blasts into your brain. How long before we get “celebrities” reading us the news? People soak up disinformation faster from familiar voices they’ve been obediently trained to respond to. I am sure that progs will love the NPR-like daily communist briefing.
New audio stores not available on Mac…….sigh
*stories