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

[William T Earle]

Apple News + is worth the subscription $$. It will get better as there is deeper curation. Apple bought the top magazine site Texture last year. Texture will be shut down at the end of May 2019. I foresee the Texture architecture integrated into Apple News + magazines. I subscribe to the NYTimes and Wash Post separately. We have to support honest, independent journalism. I will continue those subscriptions and still think this apple product is a good deal at $9.99. The WSJ is asking $$ for a standalone subscription. It’s a bargain to get WSJ bundled with the new Apple service. Check out Texture and see what this service will eventually look like.

 

[bushman4]

Apple News + is a good and useful feature. There are some limitations as to which magazines are accessible.
Unfortunately The New York Times and Washington Post among others have opted out.
I see this as a better value with more subscribers as a bundled subscription with Apple Music at perhaps a $5-$7 additional price, Don't get me wrong its a good idea

 

[matrix07]

Thanks for the review. :ThumbUp:

 

[pinkstar]

Texture was amazing!!!! This is some ********!!!

 

[carlvsam]

Another excellent vid review, no fakey news! Spot on.

Not worth the money. Full of zombie mush filler. Rapes, murder and lying politicians. Worst if you want the truth about the solar system every mag is BS on the subject. Dirty snow balls anyone...no,...comets are rock hard. The universe is electric. Shame Apple is not promoting the ,” fastest science theory.”
Go to the Thunderbolts Project on youtube. Get some facts up ya.

You forgot to add the "/satire" tag for the highlighted part...
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To be fair, most of the negative comments seem to be from people who think they can get the same content and news for free on the web. These are people who probably don't even know how to read a long-form news story. They think they're well informed after reading a 1-parargraph summary that's biased because it's free because it's coming from a source that's paid to influence opinion.

It's true, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it think. And if they believe the paid ad-copy they're reading is news, you're not going to change their minds.

The only problem with this mentality is that most people tend not to have an unlimited amount of discretionary funds to devote to subscriptions. Sure, it's easy to say "it's only $9.99 a month, so only a 'cheapskate' would complain about the price." However - as I found out when I created a spreadsheet to keep track of my monthly expenses - those small amounts can add-up quickly ...

 

[AppleSauce007]

For me, it is definitely well worth it and I read it every day.
Google searches may get you some articles or partial articles on a particular subject but not all the news from various sources for everything daily. Not to mention all the magazines and the fact that the entire family gets it.

I also suspect that Apple News users will likely get a deal for AppleTV+ and Apple Arcade for their family.

 

[ThatGuyInLa]

I think it's neat to see magazines and even newspapers trying a way to survive using their old way of delivering content (weekly/monthly) in the digital realm but I am sorry, it's dead. There's a scattered generation or two at most left who will use them and then it's going to vanish. Many of these companies already have digital versions of their content updated daily if not hourly. So it's just the last gasp of air for this old delivery method. Now this does not mean News+ will die. Magazines that embrace the digital versions of themselves like WIRED have the best chance. Staff good writers with engaging content and you'll keep readers. Even if the content is a month old. Again, most have websites with up to date features not found in their magazines and updates to content found in the last issue, to keep your interest between the monthly roll outs.

 

[ipedro]

As expected, new versions of magazines designed after the launch of AppleNews+ take better advantage of its graphical features.

The newest edition of Esquire offers a very rich table of contents page. Editions already in the app when it launched had very non descriptive, text only table of content pages. PDF only magazine editions are pre-AppleNews+.

Predictably, AppleNews+ is only going to get better as publishers start releasing newer versions of their magazines made for ApoleNews+

 

[Plutonius]

Have you signed up for Apple News+ and do you plan to keep the subscription? Let us know in the comments

I'm not interested in another subscription.

 

[tw.morgan]

I run the digital arm of The Spectator, the world’s oldest, longest running and arguably most influential magazine in the English language.

I wrote a few thoughts on this here, if you’re interested:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-apples-new-magazine-news-subscription-service-flop-tom-morgan

 

[johnnygee]

I read Flying, Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Automobile, Road & Track, National Geographic, Readers Digest, Money, Scientific American. All of these magazines include a latest stories feature, which seems to be updated daily. I'm enjoying it so far and since I can cancel at any time, I'll try it out for a few months.
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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.

Yeah, ain't nobody gonna buy no Apple Watch nohow, neither. You can quote me on this if you like.

 

[ruimpinho]

NO.

 

[Benhamdoun]

Take a look at Readly app. Way more magazines (pretty much every one on market) and cheaper. It's terrific.

 

[emmabaker]

Yes, it does. It includes the full magazine.

The New Yorker DOES NOT include Goings On About Town. I cannot find it anywhere. A huge disappointment.

 

[spazzcat]

I read the entire first page of comments on this article and only one post out of 25 was positive about Apple News+. While it’s a small sample size, for sure, if the reception of the general population to Apple News+ is anything remotely like the first page of comments, Apple News+ is going to have a large uphill battle ahead of it.

This site is always way more navigate than the real world on this kind of stuff.

 

[kafka27]

I'll use it.. IF I'll get payed.

 

[Tiger8]

I'm subscribed to 4 magazines for lifestyle, fitness, news, and technology. I get the physical edition (for travel or bathroom reading) and digital edition for my casual living room reading. I pay $5 / year for each. I rarely finish reading them.

I don't see me spending $120 for digital only Netflix for magazines. Most people are very specific about their magazines, I doubt many will bite.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Drudge Report is free and provides all of the news I need.

Same here. If there’s anything going on that doesn’t reinforce my preexisting ideology, I don’t want to see or hear it.

 

[tridley68]

Most every news article is on the internet and free so I think this is going to be a big bust definitely not worth $10 a month to me but some might like it.

 

[Stridr69]

I have no problem paying the $10 a month - but what a horrible interface - I am really going to miss Texture - it was so simple to read and find stuff and to keep back issues. I think I am going to write Tim a letter.

I want Texture back.

THIS!!!! Couldn't agree more. Plus I was paying $5.99 monthly through Amazon. Texture was also available on most other platforms as well, not just iOS and MacOS. Very dumb move, Apple. And I'm gone before my free trial ends as well.
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Not good at all. Public library offers thousand more publications through PressReader.
Way too small a library of mags. Too US focused.
What we really need is the same service but for books. All published books, old and new, available now for $9.99 per month. That might work.

Kindle Unlimited.

 

[MrGuder]

In would never pay a monthly fee for news. But what I hate is how almost every article now in Apple news are the plus + ones trying to get you to subscribe. Why can’t we turn those off...if they keep pushing it on me I will find another news app. Flipboard?

 

[cwwilson]

What Apple fails to realize is that people are tired of subscriptions. There’s so many movie, tv, music, podcast, news, makeup, razor blade, hair treatment, hormone, food and so many other services that use subscription models that it’s just getting ridiculous. So why add more? Not to mention you can get on reddit or just google up an article and somebody will have it posted somewhere, for free.

I think what we need is a reduction in the number of these programs, not more. Sometimes enough is enough.

 

[laneymv]

With apps like Zinio connected with my public library why would I spend $10/month on another magazine app. Several of the High end magazines are already free through my public library.

Only reason to spend the $10 would to get full subscriptions to things like the Wall Street Journal and other high end “newspaper” and publication like Harvard Business Review.

We as users need more value!

 

[dcpmark]

$10 a month is nothing. That's a single day of lunch. I live in LA and it's nice to get the LA Times as part of it and WSJ has some good articles too.

I read off of it every day. Worth it for sure.

Yeah, I think that if you were already an LA Times or WSJ subscriber this is a no-brainer. I was paying $30/month for the digital version of the LA Times for a long time until I told them I would cancel if they didn’t give me the $7.99/month they were offering new subscribers. So this is only $2 more a month for the WSJ and all the other content. And I consume it on my iPad Mini so it’s easy to read.

I do have one question that no review seems to answer....are we getting the FULL LA Times, every story that appears in the printed version, or a curated version? If anyone knows the answer I would appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Soultosoul]

I like reading magazines so I signed up for the free trial. It has a good mix but I would like to see some new ones added (I’m an artist so more in that genre would be nice).

The UI is not good, for the reasons mentioned in the article, especially not being able to delete after reading. Seriously wth? Also, I download magazines to read when not on wifi but in order to see the list of downloaded magazines I have to turn off the wifi, then they show up (??). I find it irritating that simple, common sense things like this are not part of the initial release and we have to wait for an update and hope they are included.

It is eligible for Family Sharing, yet I cannot get it to show up on my list of Family Sharing services. Apple Music is there, icloud storage, find my friends, etc. Everything except Apple News+. Would like for my wife to be able to try try it out and see if she likes it. Yes I know she can get a free trial too but that’s not the point.

Overall I like it. Will I sign up after the trial? Not sure yet. The $10/month doesn’t bother me, but I might just wait for the 2?, 3? updates that are always necessary then check back in.