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Apple News+: Is it Worth the $9.99 per Month Subscription Price?
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Not worth it. I have Netflix, Amazon prime, cable tv, HBO, Internet and Wired magazine subscription. I don’t have time to consume it all.
Paying for another subscription on top of it all makes no sense, unless it was super cheap. I’ll pass.
Paying for another subscription on top of it all makes no sense, unless it was super cheap. I’ll pass.
Being in the UK I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. However I’m currently subscribed to a similar service and I’ve subscribed to other services like this is in the past. I like the design and curation of the current Apple news app so I have high hopes for news + when it comes to the UK.
I just tell Siri to remind me to cancel the auto renewal three days before it renews. That way I took advantage of the free month to see if I use the thing. And up until now, I haven't used much of it.
I'll probably cancel. I have it on my iCal to remind me. There are some magazines I already subscribe to, and probably that alone would make it worth it. But, I don't like the various formatting as it appears on my 12.9" iPad. It is a little more readable on my iMac. I think I already posted this.
The general organization of the magazines for perusal just isn't doing it for me. Although I do find the topics various hobby magazines amusing. Except for my own interests of course
But, what drives me to make another posting is I've taken more time to dive in and check things out. It is kind of like an "all you can eat" buffet in a cheap restaurant. Yes indeed, the offerings are somewhat plentiful, but a lot of the "food" is.
I still haven't figured out if I'm getting the full content of the magazines I do like. Maybe the absence of ads in some of the magazines (I read) make it seem like the number of articles are fewer on this service?
I may come back to it after the service matures.
The general organization of the magazines for perusal just isn't doing it for me. Although I do find the topics various hobby magazines amusing. Except for my own interests of course
But, what drives me to make another posting is I've taken more time to dive in and check things out. It is kind of like an "all you can eat" buffet in a cheap restaurant. Yes indeed, the offerings are somewhat plentiful, but a lot of the "food" is
. I still haven't figured out if I'm getting the full content of the magazines I do like. Maybe the absence of ads in some of the magazines (I read) make it seem like the number of articles are fewer on this service?
I may come back to it after the service matures.
It is misleading to say that paid = well researched and comprehensive and implying that ad-financed is not that. There is plenty of content out there that are paid but **** and plenty of "free" stuff that's very good. Also to add that you usually get 95% for free if not more, when it comes to news etc thanks to the internet.
With News+ you get all the benefits of online tracking, advertisements, and monthly payments, with none of the hassle of a physical product you have to keep or share.
Or... just maybe... there is discrepancy between Apple's portrayed user according to their keynote and the real world.
It is quite bold to call Macrumor's users anti-intellectual, anti-science and anti-expertise. If anything call them conservative for their view on that Apple should focus on hardware, after all that's why many got stuck with Apple in the first place, but still they will represent the part of a population that is more tech interested, likely to adapt newer technologies. Also just guessing here but they are probably better off than the general population (US) that somewhat correlates with higher education and higher sense of culture.
Still don't see my point. If you/people had to choose between Apple Music and Apple News+, which one would you/they choose? If people'd choose Apple Music more often (which I truly believe they would) it renders Apple News+ objectively worse.
To be fair that's how magazines have been for a while now, subscription AND ads...
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The issue is it is only worth for the people already subscribing to some of these news sources. I don't know how revenue sharing works, but I'd much rather pay $9 for 3 subscriptions if I could choose where it goes and maybe add a few free views as promotional recommendations in the other magazines. In other words the "Audible" model.
Where are all the newspapers (hence Apple NEWS+)? I was hoping my local city newspapers were going to be included. I signed up and canceled the trial an hour later. 95% of the magazines are free from your local online library. If Apple News+ wants to get subscribers they need to get the local hometown newspapers, and not just the big city newspapers papers.
Well, my opinion/characterization of the US is what I think will make Apple News+ a tough slog. That’s separate and distinct from my definite knowledge of MR forum posters as knee-jerk, anti-Apple naysayers who will trash anything/ everything Apple does—especially things that become big successes: Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats, Apple Music, even the iPod and original iPhone.
Of the new services I think the credit card is a sure hit, the streaming service will definitely grab market share (assuming a true Netflix/Amazon/Hulu competitor with a ton of third-party content), Apple Arcade is very likely to become a fairly decent business, but News+ is more like Magazines+. It’s a tough segment, for the same reasons magazines and nearly all newspapers are having such a difficult time: the younger couple generations just aren’t into them very much. Furthermore, at least half of the population older than that would rather consume echo-chamber propaganda than hard journalism or digital magazines.
That people will pay for streaming video first, music second and newspapers/magazines as a distant third place is just the current state of US (and other countries but I’m speaking of US) consumers. When education is not particularly valued—and even disparaged as elitism—and media is vilified (and mostly partisan anyway), is it any wonder people would rather put their money into escapist entertainment?
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I agree Apple News + has the most annoying lack of function interface. The UI designers should be ashamed.
As I had the Texture app, and as I’m an insatiable reader who loves flipping through dozens of magazines each month...yes, I've subscribed to News +. The $10 per month ($9.99) is worth it *if* you look at/read up to 10 magazines or more—which I do. I mean, $10 a month for 12 or 20 magazine subscriptions? Including back issues? Including a place where I can access them all, save articles, etc? And I can read it on all my Apple devices (unlike Texture which was only iPhone/iPad)? All that for less than a dollar a month per magazine? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.Have you signed up for Apple News+ and do you plan to keep the subscription? Let us know in the comments
And there’s an added bonus: I wouldn't bother with some magazines if I had to subscribe to them individually. Like National Geographic, which is a great magazine, but I'm not interested in spending the money to get it monthly. With this app, I can get it monthly. Why not? It costs me nothing extra. Likewise National Geographic History and Wired and MacWorld. And if this month or next they have articles I want to read, then there they are. I don’t miss out on them.
All these positives don’t mean I'm entirely happy with the app. As with Apple Books, I think there’s room for improvement. A lot of room. Subscribing to the individual magazines, of all things, should be far more intuitive and easy. Regarding magazines not optimized for the app, however...I suspect the magazines, not Apple, are responsible for that. Likewise for the lack of back issues (some have them, some don’t, and most only go back a year—tap on the title to see back issues). A National Geo has content which benefits enormously from optimization and a big enough readership to support doing so; a small farming magazine doesn’t, and perhaps can’t.
Summation: the $9.99 per month price of News + is worth it to someone like me. But yes, it needs work, and I’ll be hoping and expecting updates that realize all it could be for us magazine readers.
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You can't even make the text bigger/smaller on the Mac app's main page with stories. You can manually increase/decrease each story once you click on it, but it doesn't change globally.
I've been reading News on the app on my iPhone for a while. It started off as a place that required publishers to conform to Apple's format – no pop-ups, no videos auto-playing, font, etc. In that regard, it's been solid, however most articles on the app are now a single sentence or two with READ MORE and a link to their web site. Thumbs down. I wouldn't pay for that.
Apple has really gone down hill, IMHO. They used to be all about great user interfaces and creating a great user experience. Now, it's just a mess in a lot of the stuff they have created lately – across the board. Just my opinion, obviously.
Example, I use Final Cut Pro X and the file import dialogue is completely different from every other OS X app, and it's horrible.
Apple Music – go to the FOR YOU section and click on one of the playlists presented to you. Wait a minute. Now, look at that screen again and tell me which one is playing. There is zero indication which playlist on that screen is currently playing.
Just really, really bad user interfaces from Apple, lately.
I've been reading News on the app on my iPhone for a while. It started off as a place that required publishers to conform to Apple's format – no pop-ups, no videos auto-playing, font, etc. In that regard, it's been solid, however most articles on the app are now a single sentence or two with READ MORE and a link to their web site. Thumbs down. I wouldn't pay for that.
Apple has really gone down hill, IMHO. They used to be all about great user interfaces and creating a great user experience. Now, it's just a mess in a lot of the stuff they have created lately – across the board. Just my opinion, obviously.
Example, I use Final Cut Pro X and the file import dialogue is completely different from every other OS X app, and it's horrible.
Apple Music – go to the FOR YOU section and click on one of the playlists presented to you. Wait a minute. Now, look at that screen again and tell me which one is playing. There is zero indication which playlist on that screen is currently playing.
Just really, really bad user interfaces from Apple, lately.
I like it so far, but the UI needs work, especially display of image captions such as found in National Geographic.
Maybe I am getting old, but I find most YouTube and other videos to be mostly people begging for a few more subscriptions or seconds of watching, so I have almost quit using them. I prefer something that is better reasoned and researched over opinion.
Maybe I am getting old, but I find most YouTube and other videos to be mostly people begging for a few more subscriptions or seconds of watching, so I have almost quit using them. I prefer something that is better reasoned and researched over opinion.
I agree with you mostly. Apple is turning into a services company rather MR forum likes it or not, the time (and the shareholders) will tell whether this is good or not. News+ is just a small part in this, in the scope now as nothing else is live yet *. What will decide whether Apple succeeds with their mission is how TV+ will perform. On one hand Apple has the economic muscles for it, on the other hand history tells us that big corporations can deliver ****** products despite that. Apple Card is a very interesting proposition, I reckon it will primarily compete with Amazon for the wallet of Americans. Also an interesting twist that they partner with Goldman Sachs, virtually non-existent on the retail market. My guess is that it will not be available for everyone, but a rather work as a premium service for people in the upper middle-class and above.
* A side note on journalism, its existential crisis is also partly fuelled by the loss of power over setting the narrative about themselves. It is not quality journalism that people are rejecting more and more, its just that today its not only quality journalism that gets to define itself. News outlets are getting scrutinised from more angles and by more people than ever before. This creates the polarisation, echo-chamber and fake news.
Reading comments here it’s obvious 99% of people think it’s not worth the price and are not going to pay for it.
Which of course may not be representative at all of the psychographic that actually is interested in subscribing to News+.
Which list? The “See all” My Magazines area or the side bar? (I assume you’ve “Heart-ed” them—which is how you subscribe to each Magazine). There’s only so many that will appear in the My Magazines area. I’m not sure if it’s a bug, or if there’s a limit to how many Magazine covers can appear in that area.
Whichever, I don’t like it. I want them ALL there.BUT all of my favorite-ed magazines *DO* show up in the sidebar. Are you seeing magazines you “heart-ed” vanishing from there?
Yes, because these magazines are on a app that is automatically available (free trail) to every iPhone owner in North America....and soon in the rest of the world. Given estimates of how many iPhone users there are in North America, if just 1% subscribe to News+, these magazines will have 1 million readers shared between them. For smaller magazines, at least, that could be huge. I read a Canadian food magazine I’d never have known about thanks to the original Texture App that had it under the “Food” section (News+ has it, too). People scan these sections (Food, Sports) and, knowing it costs them nothing extra, give these little magazines a try. So even though the magazines get only half the money, they actually could make MORE money because the app might double or triple their readership. It certainly has me reading several magazines I’ve never seen on the stands or at the library and/or would have considered subscribing to if I’d not gotten this package deal.
Hardly a 1000X. The way people talk about it here you’d think so, but it’s only about...oh, 3X worse. Yes, they rushed it out, and, yes, they tried too hard to make it in-line with Apple Music, Apps and Books. They want them all working similarly, and that doesn’t really work. They need to fine-tune each to serve the needs of each. While I’m sad about Texture, and disappointed in News+ for lacking all of Texture’s fine features, I’m willing to give Apple a few updates before I start wailing over the demise of Texture.You can get rid of the News App. It’s not like the old stock app that was on your phone like it or not.
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