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Apple News+: Is it Worth the $9.99 per Month Subscription Price?

A yearly subscription or in some cases a donation where they don’t have a subscriber option, allows for hiring journalists and making plans based on subscriber base of commitments. I’ve written NY Times a number of times asking for a totally ad-free option - $199/yr vs $129 now, or $19/month vs $15. Seems they’re not interested so yes, I pay for and use AdGuard and others. Edge browser and Samsung Internet offer AdBlocker. Same with other news outlets.

I was intrigued early on to see what digital magazine offered but haven’t enjoyed it. I’ve never lasted two days with Apple Bews or Flipbook or Textures so I doubt I’m likely to join the new attempt.

I have a folder of 50 bookmarks that I can load and get my daily news. That works for me.
 
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If you are into magazines then is a good deal. In Europe Article 11 and 13 may see people look to subscription services more.
 
Apple news+ sucks compared to the ease of use I enjoyed with Texture. Nothing but a giant cluster.
 
jeremiah256 said:
I gave you a thumbs up for sharing your article, but I think you’re wrong. I don't think there are very many single news, information, or entertainment sources that can compete with what one can do with the bundle Apple has created. If you are a person who subscribes to any newspaper or magazine, this is a very attractive alternative. Professionals and families can especially benefit from this app.

Wonderfully, professionally curated, single newspapers and magazines (quality) vs me creating a personalized channel devoted to a subject that will draw from hundreds of news sources (quantity) is not a hard decision.
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Still feels wrong. digital counterpart to newspapers and magazines are websites, not scanned PDFs or proprietary apps.
 
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AZREOSpecialist said:
People still read magazines? This seems like an offering whose time has passed like 15 years ago.
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Why, because Apple verifies that the news is actually from legitimate sources and not some fake Fox News conspiracy garbage?
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I read magazines once or twice a month in the sauna. But it’s far right niche magazines apple would never allow on their platform, hell they even censor their podcasts. That being said I would never think about opening the print version as pdf on a computer...

About your second question, could you define “legitimate spources”? Must be quite a narrow definition of even Fox News is too much for you.
 
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PickUrPoison said:
Re: the intended target market for the credit card, I think they’ll be able to serve more than just those with excellent credit. Those with lower scores will have lower limits and higher interest rates to offset larger losses due to accounts that go bad. But without all the fees and the 20-30% interest rates that make cards profitable for those with lower credit scores (i .e. higher risk of default), there’s likely going to be a higher minimum score necessary to qualify for the card.

btw the risk of default isn’t really all that correlated with earnings level; there are many lower income account holders who are excellent credit risks, and plenty of high-earning ones who have a poor credit history. If a credit card company just considered annual income in credit/granting decisions, they would quickly go under. In fact, annual income isn’t even a factor in default risk profiling, though it is appropriate/necessary to consider with respect to overall outstanding debt levels and available credit lines.
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Good point. The alliance of Goldman and Apple is still surprising, since Goldman Sachs has a virtually non-existent retail branch and they have minimal infrastructure with it. To add to that the data-mining part seems to be eliminated by Apple, which could have been the only selling point. I just fail to see where the bank is getting its cut from. As I see it retail is worth it if you can either charge overdraft fees (low-income) offer mortgage loans (middle-class, collateralised, relatively low-risk) or service high net-worth (private wealth management). Well, we'll see. I'll be following this closely.
 
I like the fact of browsing through Magazines, but why can't I print out a simple recipe?
The App Interface needs more then a new coat of paint.

I will give it 3 months, then either keep paying or drop it.
 
"there are no options anywhere to control what shows up there, nor to customize content recommendations to make them more relevant to one's interests." Count me out. I already hate movies because I have to dig through all the stuff I've already seen, will never ever see or want to see. It's like a restaurant where to find your meal you have to dig through the dumpster. I turned off the Apple News 'feature' on my iPhone because almost all of it was either of no interest to me, was intentionally misleading (click bait).

MacRumors said:



Apple in late March unveiled its new Apple News+ service, which is designed to let Apple News users access over 200 magazines and some paywalled news content for a $9.99 per month fee.

We've been using Apple News+ over the course of the last week and a half and in our latest YouTube video, we explore whether the service is worth the $9.99 monthly cost.


Apple News+ primarily focuses on magazines, and there are right around 240 to choose from right now. There are major titles like National Geographic and The New Yorker, along with many smaller specialty magazines. The subscription fee also includes access to some paywalled news content from sites like The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times, though as we'll explain, there are some caveats.

All the new Apple News+ content is accessible through a new Apple News+ section in the Apple News app, which is displayed regardless of whether you subscribe to Apple News+. Apple News+ features a My Magazines section with content that you're reading along with story and magazine suggestions from Apple News editors.

applenewsplusmymagazines.jpg

The user interface looks simple enough, but there are some quirks that have been confusing new subscribers. There's no clear way to add a new magazine to the My Magazines list, and in fact, you have to search for the title of the magazine in the standard Apple News interface and "favorite" it with a heart to get it to show up reliably in My Magazines or tap the title to get taken to an overview page, neither of which is intuitive.

To further confuse things, some magazines that you've read but haven't favorited will temporarily be displayed in My Magazines, and there are no options anywhere to control what shows up there, nor to customize content recommendations to make them more relevant to one's interests.

applenewsiphonepdf.jpg

When it comes to the magazines themselves, newly released magazine issues from major companies have a digital-focused interface that lets you scroll through a list of stories to get to what you want to read, but for back issues and lesser known magazines, content is presented in a PDF format that's less than ideal.

applenewsmymagazines.jpg

PDFs look all right on iPad, but are difficult to read on iPhone, and the Mac interface for Apple News+ is no better. The single page spread on Mac features small text that's not easy to zoom into, making reading PDF-based magazines on most devices a less than stellar experience.

applenewsmac.jpg

News content is included in Apple News+, but in the case of The Wall Street Journal, there are some limitations. While you can access The Wall Street Journal's full range of content, Apple is only highlighting a selection of general interest news stories, and to find anything else, you have to search. Apple News+ also only retains three days of archived content.

Other major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post have refused to join Apple News+, and it's not clear if these publications will change their position.

Apple News+ is likely to improve in the future with interface updates and as more magazines adopt the customized digital-forward design, but right now, the service feels sloppy, unfinished, and confusing.

It's also not clear if it's something that will interest the general public given the heavy focus on magazines and the lack of subscription-based news that's available. Apple's prior magazine effort, Apple Newsstand, was ultimately unsuccessful. Unlimited access to magazine content might lure more readers, but whether this new venture will succeed remains to be seen.

Apple News+ had more than 200,000 subscribers following its March introduction, but all of those accounts are still on the one-month free trial that's available and are not yet paying customers.

Have you signed up for Apple News+ and do you plan to keep the subscription? Let us know in the comments, and if you have questions about Apple News+, make sure to check out our Apple News+ guide.

Article Link: Apple News+: Is it Worth the $9.99 per Month Subscription Price?
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I miss the days when I would be so excited to sit down with a fresh Macworld, MacUser (the only places to find Mac product reviews in the 80s/90s), Wired, or American Heritage Of Invention & Technology magazine. But those days are gone. Too much other stuff vying for my attention these days, and so many other places to find content.

This product would have been amazing 10+ years ago but today it doesn't seem to make as much sense.
 
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Cosmosent said:
NO, it's NOT !

I expect the price to go down by 50% to $4.99/month by the end of the year.

At that point, it could take off, but NOT before.
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What? Does no one read anymore? And who are you? Off the cuff you’re this sure Apple totally got the entire thing wrong?

If five dollars is all you’d pay for access to these publications, then you’re probably not spending the time required to make it worth anything anyway, which be a lot like me, a non-gamer, saying a subscription to an unlimited gaming platform “Isn’t worth more than a couple bucks! Maximum!!!” because I can’t fathom anyone not seeing the world exactly the way I do.
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HiRez said:
I miss the days when I would be so excited to sit down with a fresh Macworld, MacUser (the only places to find Mac product reviews in the 80s/90s), Wired, or American Heritage Of Invention & Technology magazine. But those days are gone. Too much other stuff vying for my attention these days, and so many other places to find content.

This product would have been amazing 10+ years ago but today it doesn't seem to make as much sense.
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You’re kidding? American Heritage Of Invention & Technology isn’t at Barnes and Noble anymore?

thadoggfather said:
It's going to be a catastrophic failure. Calling it now. Quote me down the road if you'd like.

All this 'curation' and yet the end result is the same as scraping news sites without discernment and regurgitating the content in a scattered UI... I don't feel like they've filtered out the crap which was the supposed original intention/sales pitch of 'curation' in the first place -- they've only enhanced it.

Apple should really stick with hardware.

Services have never been their strength and I dont see this changing that.
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I agree with the curation of news. That should be on a second tab at best. The primary screen should show what I’ve decided I want to see (i.e., what I’m paying for).

Why tf is Buzzfeed and Fox News still the sht I have to sort through to get to the content I decided to pay for? Do they really make that much money off Fox and Buzzfeed? And even if they did, it still feels strangely prioritized.
 
jeremiah256 said:
I think the PDFs are temporary as they port over the magazines. I disagree that multiple websites are better than a single portal for news.
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So they port over the PDFs to what? Little websites? its so 1999 lol
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FairlyKors said:
What? Does no one read anymore? And who are you? Off the cuff you’re this sure Apple totally got the entire thing wrong?

If five dollars is all you’d pay for access to these publications, then you’re probably not spending the time required to make it worth anything anyway, which be a lot like me, a non-gamer, saying a subscription to an unlimited gaming platform “Isn’t worth more than a couple bucks! Maximum!!!” because I can’t fathom anyone not seeing the world exactly the way I do.
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You’re kidding? American Heritage Of Invention & Technology isn’t at Barnes and Noble anymore?




I agree with the curation of news. That should be on a second tab at best. The primary screen should show what I’ve decided I want to see (i.e., what I’m paying for).

Why tf is Buzzfeed and Fox News still the sht I have to sort through to get to the content I decided to pay for? Do they really make that much money off Fox and Buzzfeed? And even if they did, it still feels strangely prioritized.
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The thing is you can not just google World of warcraft an find 100 free alternatives or even the original content for free, like you can with content from Apple News.....
 
I tried it and immediately cancelled. Literally the only things that would have interested me for the price were Washington Post and NYT access, which were ironically the only two big things not viable at this price point. So at least on my end, it's probably never going to work.
 
jeremiah256 said:
I think the PDFs are temporary as they port over the magazines. I disagree that multiple websites are better than a single portal for news.
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Why would a magazine port over their content from a PDF to Apple magazine format? They won't get any more of the Apple news+ money will they? So why should they bother?
 
jeremiah256 said:
I think readership does affect shares.
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No, Apple doesn't give out individual numbers as to who is doing well under Apple News+. Those involved in News+ have no idea if their readership is going up (apart from the fact they are in Apple News+ which they are regardless of if they put out a plain PDF or a fancy News+ view) so shareholders have zero information about "readership"
 
WatchFromAfar said:
No, Apple doesn't give out individual numbers as to who is doing well under Apple News+. Those involved in News+ have no idea if their readership is going up (apart from the fact they are in Apple News+ which they are regardless of if they put out a plain PDF or a fancy News+ view) so shareholders have zero information about "readership"
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So, you’re saying Penmanship Magazine, with 10 readers per month and shrinking, would get the same amount as Hot Dogs Magazine with 10M per month and growing?
 
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In Canada, make that $12.99 - and the 'free' part of News is pretty appalling here, their curated stories worse. For that part, you're better off with news aggregators like Flipboard, Feedly or even Google News. As for the + part, as mentioned in earlier posts, if your local library supports digital 'borrowing', magazine apps like RBdigital work very well.
Apple's carcass of Texture is not what it should be.
 
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