Nine months ago, Apple unveiled its Apple News+ service, designed to let ‌‌Apple News‌‌ users access over 200 magazines and some paywalled news content for a $9.99 per month fee. Apple keeps 50 percent of this fee and the remaining revenue is split among publishers based on the amount of time readers spend with each publisher's content.

applenewsplus
However, a new report by Digiday looking at the popularity of ‌Apple News‌+ suggests that most publishers remain underwhelmed by the paid subscription service and so far aren't seeing the results they'd hoped for.

According to the report, the news service is having little impact on publishers' bottom lines, and although it has generated some additional revenue and enabled them to reach more international audiences, overall publisher revenues generated from ‌Apple News‌+ are modest.

One publisher told Digiday that revenue was less than $20,000 a month, but the desire to keep the subscription numbers up meant it was worth renewing the contract with Apple next year.

"We're happy to be on there because it's another way to increase subscription revenue, but it's not like it's a huge boon for our business or anything like that," one magazine exec said. "It's not really relevant."

Another publisher said they were "encouraged" by the results since joining ‌Apple News‌+ and that it had helped them grow their audience outside of the U.S., but declined to say how many subscriptions they'd added because of the platform.

"I think the jury is out," said Roger Lynch, Condé Nast CEO said at Code Media in November, about Apple News+. "I think that … the paid side of it has had some adoption and I think Apple will continue to focus on that. Whether it's good for publishers like us or not is to be determined."

Two days after the service's launch in March, Apple reported 200,000 new subscriptions for ‌Apple News‌+, but hasn't offered any more subscription numbers. One report last month suggested that Apple has struggled to attract subscribers to its news service, although the company isn't expected to dramatically change its ‌Apple News‌+ strategy.

That said, Bloomberg reported in November that Apple is considering bundling ‌Apple News‌+ with Apple TV+ and Apple Music, which could mean users see perceive it as offering better value for money. Have you signed up for ‌‌Apple News‌‌+ and do you plan to keep the subscription? Let us know in the comments.

Top Rated Comments

ghostface147 Avatar
65 months ago
There just isn't anything compelling enough on News +. People consume news differently now, for better or for worse.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Exile714 Avatar
65 months ago
I would imagine Apple News+ lost a lot of subscribers because the interface is poor. Magazines have two types of content: those found in the table of contents which can be accessed by tapping on them, and content which can only be found by browsing. Sure, the app looks nice, but the problems are 1) surfacing articles of interest is difficult because search and indexing are non-existent, and 2) even browsing articles is a challenge because this forces users to page through a sea of ads.

I think this design decision was purposeful, and done to appease magazines who didn’t want to lose ad revenue by making all their content easily searched AND browsed. They compromised the user experience by limiting systems that would make both browsing and searching easier, but in the end all that did was 1) make most people think there was less content than there was, and 2) make it impossible for the few who knew what else was there to quickly access that hidden content.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
confirmed Avatar
65 months ago
I subscribe and enjoy it for the clean, distraction-free interface for WSJ and 5-6 magazines. But it's definitely lacking in some features to make it more enjoyable to use and easier to discover content:

* Full Article Search - The current search feature is extremely limited.
* Saved reading place - Many magazine articles are very long and I don't always have time to read them in one sitting. Saving my place within the article and syncing that across devices is sorely needed. This is especially needed as this app mixes up-to-date news and magazines, if I want to get an update on breaking news when I'm mid article, I then have to find my place again once I go back.
* Single sign-on with the news source's website & app OR direct linking to Apple News for all News+ articles - If someone shares a New Yorker article with me, I should be able to open it with my News+ subscription in one click, whether that's access within newyorker.com (via Sign in with Apple?) or directly opening the article in News+.
* Picture in Picture support for Video - I want to be able to continue watching a video while I switch to other apps, or even while I browse through different articles within Apple News. Odd that I can do this with a CBS News video on cbsnews.com, but Apple News won't let me do this with the same video.
* Multiple Windows support on iPad - This would help with the issue of keeping a long form magazine article open, while also browsing late breaking news. Similar to above, strange that Apple doesn't support iPadOS multi-tasking features in their own app.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
masterleep Avatar
65 months ago
Needs more newspapers and someone with a brain to design the UI.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zorinlynx Avatar
65 months ago

News consumption is not the same as it used to be. While we are going through a paradigm shift, big players like Apple, Google, etc. will throw in the offerings that they think will change things in a big way going forward. But even they are throwing darts up in the air aiming to hit the bull's eye. It is a waiting game and maybe a long drawn until we are on the other side of this tectonic shift.
Not to mention, I bet a lot of people in the US have a "news fatigue" of sorts stemming from the constant coverage of what's going on in our government. I know I've been avoiding the news almost completely, except for occasionally catching up on things as I still want to stay informed.

It's depressing and stressful and I bet most people don't want to hear about it anymore. There's a reason my Feedly is 99% tech/science sites.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Appleman3546 Avatar
65 months ago
Apple has tough competition for news...free browsers
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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...
Generic iOS 18

Apple Releases First Betas of iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3

Monday December 16, 2024 10:06 am PST by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2. iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software update. There's no word yet on what's included in iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3, ...
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...
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...
Apple TV 4K hero 221018 feature

Here is Everything New for the Apple TV in the tvOS 18.3 Update So Far

Tuesday December 17, 2024 6:25 am PST by
Apple on Monday seeded the first tvOS 18.3 beta to developers for testing. The update will likely be released in January. So far, there are only minor changes for the Apple TV, with one new feature and a few code changes discovered. Below, we outline what is new in tvOS 18.3 so far. Robot Vacuum Support in Home App First, tvOS 18.3 will add robot vacuum support to the Home app on the...
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...