Apple News Drives Significant Traffic to Stories, Publishers Can Pitch Articles via Slack

[MacRumors]

Apple News can yield a flood of traffic for news publishers, with the app accounting for as much as 50 to 60 percent of readership for some stories, according to a paywalled report by Tom Dotan for The Information.

Apple News has generated half of Vox.com's daily traffic at times, according to a person familiar with Vox's numbers. An executive at the website of a major TV network said Apple News has accounted for as much as 60% of traffic for some stories.

The report claims Apple has an editorial team of about a dozen former journalists, led by veteran Apple executive Roger Rosner, who decide which articles get featured in the Top Stories or Spotlight sections of Apple News, or in the News tab on an iPhone, accessible by swiping left from the first page of the home screen.

The editorial team in the United States runs a dedicated Slack channel in which publishers can pitch stories to Apple, which tends to favor big breaking stories, special features, and multi-part series, according to the report. Apple is said to have similar teams working with publishers in Australia and the United Kingdom.

The curation process isn't praised by all publishers, as smaller to medium-sized sites say Apple News tends to favor big mainstream outlets, which get featured prominently when users first sign up for Apple News.

A bigger issue that publishers have with Apple News is that many don't earn any significant ad revenue from the app.

Part of the problem relates to how it sells ad space next to stories. Apple initially used its ad team iAd, but it later outsourced sales to NBC. It has yet to integrate Google's industry standard ad-serving tool DoubleClick, which publishing executive say would make ad sales much easier.

This may change soon, as Apple has supposedly begun to run a closed test of Google's industry standard ad-serving tool DoubleClick with around 20 publishers, in line with a report from last July. However, it's unclear when or if Apple News will roll it out wider, according to the report.

All in all, while Apple News has proved more successful than first expected, there is still some progress to be made as Apple aims to become a key distribution outlet for news publishers around the world.

Article Link: Apple News Drives Significant Traffic to Stories, Publishers Can Pitch Articles via Slack

 

[NinjaHERO]

Very interesting. It seems like Apple at least understands how they influence traffic and tries to find "proper" stories. But obviously I'm just thinking happy thoughts based on a little information.

Use your powers for good Apple.

 

[Stridder44]

My only complaint with Apple News is the lack of a macOS application. I enjoy reading it on my iPad, but I'd love to have the same ability on my MBP.

 

[autrefois]

Apple has supposedly begun to run a closed test of Google's industry standard ad-serving tool DoubleClick

That would be horrible news, especially for a company that prides itself on privacy, consumer protection, and anti-tracking technology (in Safari).

 

[justperry]

That would be horrible news, especially for a company that prides itself on privacy, consumer protection, and anti-tracking technology (in Safari).

Agreed, this instantly came to my mind as well, I don't want google to infest my iPhone.

 

[CrystalQuest76]

Since apple has decided to curate news, i wish they would make more effort to suppress articles that are nothing more than clickbait.

 

[djcerla]

Apple News has proved more successful than first expected

I expected it to be highly successful. The 5 headlines I see in my widgets (there’s no Apple News in Italy yet) are always interesting and prompt me to follow to the content.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Seems many don't realize just how much traffic Apple News drives. While you may not use it yourself, that doesn't mean that millions of others don't.

 

[trunten]

Wait a minute, does this mean the flip board guy isn’t the oracle on all things news??? I’m confused (sarcasm).

 

[lolkthxbai]

but wait! flipboard guy said apple news is old news! this can’t be right!!!

 

[ignatius345]

Since apple has decided to curate news, i wish they would make more effort to suppress articles that are nothing more than clickbait.

Same. I mute outlets that propagate it the most but weird promotional/advertorial stuff still creeps in.

 

[twolf2919]

I love the idea of curated news. I currently use Feedly and love it, but lots of crap (and redundant stories) creep in. I'd like to give Apple News another try, but it requires too much sliding to get through a lot of headlines quickly. Is there a more compact view (e.g. without images?) If so, I couldn't find it in Preferences.

 

[ignatius345]

From a user standpoint, I like Apple News a lot. The tie-ins to existing subscriptions are a great feature. Re: the Double-click thing, I wonder if the anti-tracking stuff from Safari will also work in Apple News?

 

[zzmd]

Apple News can yield a flood of traffic for news publishers, with the app accounting for as much as 50 to 60 percent of readership for some stories, according to a paywalled report by Tom Dotan for The Information.

The report claims Apple has an editorial team of about a dozen former journalists, led by veteran Apple executive Roger Rosner, who decide which articles get featured in the Top Stories or Spotlight sections of Apple News, or in the News tab on an iPhone, accessible by swiping left from the first page of the home screen.

The editorial team in the United States runs a dedicated Slack channel in which publishers can pitch stories to Apple, which tends to favor big breaking stories, special features, and multi-part series, according to the report. Apple is said to have similar teams working with publishers in Australia and the United Kingdom.

The curation process isn't praised by all publishers, as smaller to medium-sized sites say Apple News tends to favor big mainstream outlets, which get featured prominently when users first sign up for Apple News.

A bigger issue that publishers have with Apple News is that many don't earn any significant ad revenue from the app.This may change soon, as Apple has supposedly begun to run a closed test of Google's industry standard ad-serving tool DoubleClick with around 20 publishers, in line with a report from last July. However, it's unclear when or if Apple News will roll it out wider, according to the report.

All in all, while Apple News has proved more successful than first expected, there is still some progress to be made as Apple aims to become a key distribution outlet for news publishers around the world.

Article Link: Apple News Drives Significant Traffic to Stories, Publishers Can Pitch Articles via Slack

[doublepost=1518627746][/doublepost]Yeah, copying google on bias news services.

 

[anson42]

I read articles through Apple News every day and really appreciate the ability to choose the content sources and themes I want to read. Are there ads? I'm so trained to ignore them that if there are ads I clearly don't notice them. I even let Fox News content show up because it's so damn amusing and who's doesn't the occasional SMH moment? No offense to Fox News readers, you probably feel the same way about CNN. But thanks to Apple News I've discovered news sites I didn't know existed before and I will visit those sites as well for additional content.

 

[KENESS]

I like Apple News. Like someone earlier said, I wish there was a macOS counterpart.

The only thing I wish it had was an "all the way back to the first screen" type back button. Sometimes I dive so deep down the rabbit hole it takes forever to go back, one-by-one, to return to the front page.

(Unless there is a way and I haven't figured it out... If there is, please, do tell!)

 

[zzmd]

Of course you have a choice. However when searching different issues on google their progressive bias is obvious. Apple needs to stick with what they do best not get involved anymore then they already do. Thanks for putting on team Fox News but I’ll pick my own sources.

 

[cardfan]

Apple news goes into junk folder.

 

[ersan191]

In my opinion, the fact that Apple News drives such insane amounts of traffic to these articles just goes to show how bad the state of news apps are on iOS actually are. Flipboard having 100M users is another example.

Neither of those apps is any good at showing me articles that I’m interested in, which was supposed to be their main selling point. I think a lot of people get pulled in by breaking news update notifications, which are extremely hit or miss. 90% of the notifications I get are about whatever stupid crap Donald Trump has done recently, like just now I got one about Trump saying something mean on Twitter about one of the guys at the olympics - I don’t care, that isn’t news. It’s literally impossible to find an app or a feed anywhere that has actual breaking worldwide news without spam and fluff. Less is more here... and the top articles on my “for you” news page are increasingly idiotic.

I gave up on Flipboard/News and started building my own filtered RSS feeds, but finding one with relevant breaking news is impossible - go look at the breaking news feeds for CNN or Fox or Reuters, they are complete garbage. Driving traffic to their sites is how the news outlets make money so they fill their feeds with as much random nonsense as they can.

I don’t know if better algorithmic recommendations are the answer, but something should probably be done - clearly there is a strong desire for getting interesting/relevant news on your phone, but what’s out there now isn’t doing it for me (I do find that Apple News is great at displaying the news, just the content it chooses to display is inadequate). I look forward to dissenting opinions, is anyone actually totally happy with Flipboard/News?

 

[budselectjr]

Since apple has decided to curate news, i wish they would make more effort to suppress articles that are nothing more than clickbait.

First thing I uninstall. It’s embarrassing.

 

[anson42]

I look forward to dissenting opinions, is anyone actually totally happy with Flipboard/News?

I think I tried Flipboard once or twice back in the day when it came out but I went back to the individual news sites. With Apple News I find I do that much less but I still do. When AN first came out I wasn't all that impressed but I certainly read it now.

 

[JRobinsonJr]

Since apple has decided to curate news, i wish they would make more effort to suppress articles that are nothing more than clickbait.

Agreed! The challenge is how to define that in a consistently repeatable way. Particularly for politics, there are some very polarizing topics that some people might consider click-bait while others consider it of value.

 

[anson42]

The only thing I wish it had was an "all the way back to the first screen" type back button. Sometimes I dive so deep down the rabbit hole it takes forever to go back, one-by-one, to return to the front page.

(Unless there is a way and I haven't figured it out... If there is, please, do tell!)

+1 I wind up hitting back button numerous times to go back. The other annoying thing is sometimes when I do, the home screen refreshes with new stories and jumps back to the top. And sometimes I get the "new stories" arrow and I can continue scrolling from where I left off. How do I avoid that jump? Is the behavior just based elapsed time away from home page?

 

[JRobinsonJr]

I read articles through Apple News every day and really appreciate the ability to choose the content sources and themes I want to read. Are there ads? I'm so trained to ignore them that if there are ads I clearly don't notice them. I even let Fox News content show up because it's so damn amusing and who's doesn't the occasional SMH moment? No offense to Fox News readers, you probably feel the same way about CNN. But thanks to Apple News I've discovered news sites I didn't know existed before and I will visit those sites as well for additional content.

Regardless of what you think of Fox versus CNN, the ability to not just read things you agree with is a sign of maturity. Something a large portion of the population (on all sides) could use a bit more of!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Since apple has decided to curate news, i wish they would make more effort to suppress articles that are nothing more than clickbait.

That would suppress almost all articles unless you are PAYING for something that doesn't need to lean on ad revenue to get the writers paid. Eyeballs = Ad Revenue. Ad revenue pays the writers & editors.