Report Reveals Apple News Brings Publishers Much Higher Traffic But a Lot Less Ad Revenue

An extensive new report by Slate has revealed the challenges publishers are facing when it comes to profiting from Apple News despite the platform's growing readership.

According to the report, page views on Apple News have roughly tripled since September 2017, and the app has now surpassed Facebook as a driver of readership.

apple news midterm elections 2018
Unlike Google and Facebook however, Apple News hosts content within the app instead of sending readers to the original website, depriving publishers of ad revenue.

In a stark example, Slate revealed that it earns more money from an article that gets 50,000 page views on its own site than it does from 54 million views on Apple News.

Apple News has so far offered publishers few opportunities for generating ad revenue, although Apple recently added support for Google's industry standard ad-serving tool DoubleClick.

Still, Apple's privacy policy ensures limitations: Google's ad manager can serve traditional banner ads including animated GIF ads, but it can't yet be used to serve HTML5-based ads or pre-roll video ads.

Despite the struggle, publishers are reportedly continuing to embrace Apple News in the hope that things will eventually change and given the huge potential opportunities for exposure that the platform offers. The app now comes pre-installed on all new Macs and iOS devices in countries where Apple News is available.

Apple has also reportedly urged major U.S. newspapers about adding their content to the Texture magazine app that Apple purchased in March, with a view to eventually integrating the subscription-based service into Apple News.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

redneckitengineer Avatar
81 months ago
Just use Adblock, like 1BlockerX. Surf the websites ad-free. I’m sorry but banner ads are about all I can stand. The stupid rolling ads, and the full page ads are a nuisance. Vote with your wallet, block them until they get reasonable.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
redneckitengineer Avatar
81 months ago
It's sure horrid the websites you enjoy great content from would want to make money for their hard work. I get that you might hate ads but this is how they pay the bills. Don't be surprised if they shut down or start charging a subscription. You expect to get paid for the work you do at your job, they do too.

Block them until they get reasonable? Really? You think showing a few unobtrusive ads isn't reasonable? What would you consider reasonable (keeping in mind that they need to be able to make enough to justify putting in the time and effort to create this content)?
What an entitled point of view.
I take it you both work in media? Because that’s the ONLY person who willingly accepts badgering, nuisance, invasive and tracking advertisements. I guess you totally missed what I said. Let me try and make it easier for you to understand a second time. I said that I accept banner ads. I do not accept bandwidth heavy auto play videos, ads that force me to click off them, scrolling ads that impede my ability to read the article.

If that makes me entitled, so be it. Forbes and NYT paywall.. I just go elsewhere now. By forcing them to lose revenue on adblockers, they are learning what types of ads were are willing to accept.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
redneckitengineer Avatar
81 months ago
The news app would be nothing without the articles. Apple needs to step up and pay the publishers what they deserve.
500k views earns more than 54 million views?! Come on Apple!
The difference here is how ads are presented.

AppleNews:
1. Banner only
2. Hard to accidentally click

Direct website:
1. Higher quantity of ads
2. Full screen unavoidable ads
3. Scrolling ads
4. Cross site tracking
5. Auto play video ads
6. Deceiving layout to encourage accidental clicking on ads disguised as fake news articles

It’s not about the ads, it’s how they present them and force them upon the user as to why they aren’t making enough.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
elpamyelhsa Avatar
81 months ago
News sites figured out how to monetise viewership by employing things like moving adverts that get accidentally clicked and forced pre-roll videos that steal our time. Now they are unhappy people are changing the way they read news to avoid these annoying things.

I feel sorry they are loosing money from this, they do need to make money after all, but on the positive side this may lead to more moral revenue paths for them.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Christoffee Avatar
81 months ago
Just use Adblock, like 1BlockerX. Surf the websites ad-free. I’m sorry but banner ads are about all I can stand. The stupid rolling ads, and the full page ads are a nuisance. Vote with your wallet, block them until they get reasonable.
I was all against adblockers, sympathetic to the cause. Then I got a nasty piece of adware on my Mac. Easily removed, but the the narrative said that it comes down with adverts. So, the baby went out with the bath water and I now adblock.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BigMcGuire Avatar
81 months ago
Why not pay for a subscription? Ads gone.
And read public service, guaranteed ad free
I tried this. I paid for WSJ and Economist. Do you think that got rid of ads? Nope. Still tons of ads. Same thing for LA Times and NYT. If this were the case, I'd be all over paying subscriptions. Last news subscription I had was 3+ years ago. They advertised themselves out of my wallet.

Last few years I've found a lot of happiness in books. No ads, able to concentrate, the president of the USA doesn't come up every other (or every) article, and I can enjoy what I read for days/weeks.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)