As clicks dry up for news sites, could Apple’s news app be a lifeline? | Semafor

The free version of Apple News is one of the biggest news platforms in the world. It’s the most widely used news application in the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia, and boasted over 125 million monthly users in 2020. The News+ subscription launched in 2019 after the company acquired the startup Texture, which had promised a service like a “Netflix of magazines.” That investment represented Apple’s deepening business relationship with news publishers, one that began with a high-profile announcement partnership with the Wall Street Journal (despite the Journal’s parent company’s skepticism of tech platforms).

Apple News+ charges users $12.99 a month for a bundled subscription to articles from premium magazines and newspapers, featuring constantly updating stories syndicated from major American news sites and magazines, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the BBC, the LA Times, and hundreds of others.

Apple News+ began rapidly increasing its partnerships over the past two years, adding dozens of local and regional newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Austin American-Statesman, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Tennessean, among others. The company licenses articles from behind publishers’ paywalls, and pays them monthly based partially on time audiences spend on each piece. Publishers also can sell advertising on their content in Apple News, as well as distribute product recommendation and reviews, keeping 100% of any affiliate link revenue they generate as a result.

Apple declined to comment on how many people subscribe to News+.

Many publishers have taken a hands-off approach to Apple, treating the partnership as a kind of bonus.

Slate President Charlie Kammerer said he views Apple as a discovery platform for people who may not otherwise be familiar with the publication’s content, showing them clicky advice columns and longreads.

“We’re really focused on how to build loyalty with our audience both on and off platform, and it’s working well,” he said in an email. “While we continue to grow our membership business within our Slate ecosystem, we are also looking at partners like Apple News+ as a discovery—and perhaps rediscovery tool—for people to find Slate content where they are, and pay for it.’”

He added: “It’s encouraging to see that the kind of high quality, in-depth journalism that is important to Slate and our audience is working well on Apple News+. They’ve made a product that’s appealing to both readers and publishers, and it’s become a nice additional revenue stream for us.”

But for other outlets, the partnership with Apple goes much deeper and has begun driving content decisions. Through its Spotlight program the company solicits and commissions specific pieces around particular news events, such as major holidays and anniversaries. Noah Shachtman, the former editor of Rolling Stone, told Semafor that Apple also paid extra to commission art and audio segments for the magazine’s articles.

In an interview last week, CEO Neil Vogel told Semafor that Dotdash Meredith has teams at multiple publications creating content specifically and exclusively for Apple News+, which Apple then promotes.

“It’s another outlet for our brands and our content,” Vogel said. “We have a relationship with them that we think is super fair in both directions. And it’s been really positive.”