Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple news. Why?

N

Notechy

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 11, 2015
67
11
Surrey
What is the point of it?

It is littered with general advertising. It has lots of links to Apple News + items, even though it knows that I do not have access to those items.

And in the top parts of For You the newest item is 18 hours old and is about “unconventional relationships”.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Azathoth123 and hagjohn
The reason you see Apple News+ snippets is Apple wants to give you an idea of the kind of content it offers, so that you will hopefully subscribe.

You can set up Apple News to only show you feeds you care about.

In my opinion, Apple News is really a mass magazine depository. I use it for 4 different magazines I like to read. I am still making use of a free 3 month trial period. I won't be subscribing after the trial, even though there are some magazines I like to read.

The advertising in the news section is way too much. There shouldn't be any for subscribers.
 
I have Apple One premier which included news+.

I tried the News+ 3mth offer a while back and didn’t think I’d see a benefit of £9.99/mth.

But since getting Apple One I find I use news+ a lot as does my wife. Plus there’s no ads.
AD793593-B1D1-4E9F-A1A8-429A50BA6E62.png

25E1A128-C79F-49CC-AF92-0ACF0D17A6B1.png

8A88FD41-1C31-4E7F-9C5C-037091373FF9.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TouchedByAl, BigMcGuire and russell_314
Apple_Robert said:
.
I just checked the One packages and see that Premiere is the only package offering ad free news. Interesting
Click to expand...
I think because it's normally ten dollars a month (In the USA) so it's expensive thus only in the most expensive version of Apple One.
 
russell_314 said:
News+ only gives you access to see the sites. Apple doesn't put ads but say you go to a WSJ article you'll see ads put there by the WSJ.
Click to expand...
I still get ads in the main feed between the topics. I'm on the Premiere subscription
 

Attachments

  • B09CDED1-0F79-42B0-AE64-03CEC9628B97.png
    B09CDED1-0F79-42B0-AE64-03CEC9628B97.png
    1.8 MB · Views: 115
  • 01F87D8A-980C-4FD0-AFAE-9B1D698ED80C.png
    01F87D8A-980C-4FD0-AFAE-9B1D698ED80C.png
    1.8 MB · Views: 116
Last edited:
  • Wow
Reactions: russell_314
Notechy said:
What is the point of it?

It is littered with general advertising. It has lots of links to Apple News + items, even though it knows that I do not have access to those items.

And in the top parts of For You the newest item is 18 hours old and is about “unconventional relationships”.
Click to expand...
I see it as an RSS feed reader... I can get a lot of news tailored to my liking all in one place. It also recognizes my subscriptions to WSJ, Economist, etc. I'm fairly upset at NYT not allowing paying subscribers to utilize their subscription in the app...

The ads bother me. I usually subscribe to news (WSJ, Economist, Ars Technica, NYT) and use an adblocker in my browser to view the news because ... I can't stand ads.

I'm an Apple Premier subscriber and I still see ads in my news articles - though some have none <shrug>. It really bothers me to pay for something and get blasted in the face with ads.


Throughout the day I'll CMD+SHFT+ D articles to Safari's reading list. Then at the end of the day I'll pop out my iPad and read them all with AdGuard Pro so I can focus on the text without having ads forced in my face. And because I know that things cost $, I pay for subscriptions that I AdGuard so I don't hurt their revenue.

It still is an affront to me to pay hundreds of $ a year to be force fed advertisement. Boggles my mind.
 
I noticed reduced ads overall but I still get them, especially on Reuters, Washington Post, Ars Technica (inside Apple News) (checked just now).

I've tested about 4-5 other major news companies - sometimes I'll get ads, sometimes I won't (inside of Apple News app).
 
BorgCube said:
I see it as an RSS feed reader... I can get a lot of news tailored to my liking all in one place. It also recognizes my subscriptions to WSJ, Economist, etc. I'm fairly upset at NYT not allowing paying subscribers to utilize their subscription in the app...

The ads bother me. I usually subscribe to news (WSJ, Economist, Ars Technica, NYT) and use an adblocker in my browser to view the news because ... I can't stand ads.

I'm an Apple Premier subscriber and I still see ads in my news articles - though some have none <shrug>. It really bothers me to pay for something and get blasted in the face with ads.


Throughout the day I'll CMD+SHFT+ D articles to Safari's reading list. Then at the end of the day I'll pop out my iPad and read them all with AdGuard Pro so I can focus on the text without having ads forced in my face. And because I know that things cost $, I pay for subscriptions that I AdGuard so I don't hurt their revenue.

It still is an affront to me to pay hundreds of $ a year to be force fed advertisement. Boggles my mind.
Click to expand...
Think of it this way if you went to the newsstand and bought a paper copy of the WSJ it would contain ads even though you paid for it. When you buy paper copies of magazines they often contain more ads than content but you still pay for them. For some reason people expect when they're online it should be different. I'm not saying you're wrong about ads being annoying because I think they are and use an ad blocker but rather just pointing out a weird way that people look at online vs old school print.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
russell_314 said:
Think of it this way if you went to the newsstand and bought a paper copy of the WSJ it would contain ads even though you paid for it. When you buy paper copies of magazines they often contain more ads than content but you still pay for them. For some reason people expect when they're online it should be different. I'm not saying you're wrong about ads being annoying because I think they are and use an ad blocker but rather just pointing out a weird way that people look at online vs old school print.
Click to expand...
Yep, I definitely see that. As a kid I subbed to WSJ print and read that for years and years during high school/college. I always hated the advertisements - especially in the LA Times - that just got nuts. (Don't get me started on Cable TV...)

I am of the opinion that if I'm paying for something I shouldn't be blasted with ads like the "free tier" gets. I pay for Youtube Red, Macrumors Contributor, etc. If I'm paying for something, I don't want ads. Do most news organizations still give ads? Yep. Annoys the **** out of me. lol.

Probably my biggest gripe with Apple News cuz of all the years I've done AdGuard Pro with Safari. Just so nice to have JUST text/story pics. :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: russell_314
BorgCube said:
Yep, I definitely see that. As a kid I subbed to WSJ print and read that for years and years during high school/college. I always hated the advertisements - especially in the LA Times - that just got nuts. (Don't get me started on Cable TV...)

I am of the opinion that if I'm paying for something I shouldn't be blasted with ads like the "free tier" gets. I pay for Youtube Red, Macrumors Contributor, etc. If I'm paying for something, I don't want ads. Do most news organizations still give ads? Yep. Annoys the **** out of me. lol.

Probably my biggest gripe with Apple News cuz of all the years I've done AdGuard Pro with Safari. Just so nice to have JUST text/story pics. :p
Click to expand...
I think you have a good mentality. You understand companies need to make money for a product so in exchange for no ads you're willing to pay for it. TBH I kind of liked some of the ads in papers or magazines if they were something I was interested in. Computer magazines mean computer ads for computers that I liked but couldn't afford back then 🤤

Most websites even news have ads but I block them on my Mac in Firefox with uBlock Origin. I've never tried AdGuard Pro. Does that work on iPhone? I'm cautious about ad blockers because in order to block ads they pretty much know everything you're doing online. I'm not doing anything wrong or even exciting online but creepy tracking like Facebook does bugs me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
russell_314 said:
I think you have a good mentality. You understand companies need to make money for a product so in exchange for no ads you're willing to pay for it. TBH I kind of liked some of the ads in papers or magazines if they were something I was interested in. Computer magazines mean computer ads for computers that I liked but couldn't afford back then 🤤

Most websites even news have ads but I block them on my Mac in Firefox with uBlock Origin. I've never tried AdGuard Pro. Does that work on iPhone? I'm cautious about ad blockers because in order to block ads they pretty much know everything you're doing online. I'm not doing anything wrong or even exciting online but creepy tracking like Facebook does bugs me.
Click to expand...
Yep I use it on my iPhone/iPad. I used uBlock back in the day with Chrome (haven't used Chrome for a few years now) - I remember uBlock Origin being really really good.
 
BorgCube said:
Yep I use it on my iPhone/iPad. I used uBlock back in the day with Chrome (haven't used Chrome for a few years now) - I remember uBlock Origin being really really good.
Click to expand...
I can't stand Chrome now but that's probably when I started using it. It only works on Firefox now. Apple and Google have made it impossible to block ads in the same way on Safari and Chrome. One makes their money off ads and the other gets paid billions by them so it's not surprising. The only downside is it makes some websites not work properly. For my banking and other important stuff I use Safari. I don't need to worry about ads there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
I checked Apple's description of News+, and it says nothing about being AD free. Ads used to be small rectangles but lately I have be getting a lot of adds that take up entire screen in the middle of the story. Screen shot:
IMG_1178.png

I will never buy or used products advertised in this way. Got rid of ads in Weather Underground by upgrading. But no solution offered by Apple. At least limit ads to small rectangles.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire and max2
I can't stand the number of ads in Apple News anymore. Especially when I'm reading in dark mode at night and WHAM, bright flashing colorful screaming ad in my face for something I pay for.

Yeah... back to reading news on my browser with AdGuard Pro. <shakes head>... I use it to scroll headlines only now days.

Agreed, some of the ads have gotten obnoxious. I reported one article that had 4 pages of non-stop full page ads. Really? I pay for this?
 
  • Like
Reactions: max2
I don't pay for Apple News...its not worth it for me. But I do think that its good for following a general topic when you want news on it from whatever source Apple can find.

However, if you want to follow a specific site, then my go-to is RSS (using the Reeder app). I also have some newspaper apps, too.

So Apple News is just another source of info that I look at from time-to-time. Nothing spectacular.
 
Notechy said:
What is the point of it?

It is littered with general advertising. It has lots of links to Apple News + items, even though it knows that I do not have access to those items.

And in the top parts of For You the newest item is 18 hours old and is about “unconventional relationships”.
Click to expand...

Eh... I use it.

If you put a little time into selecting content its a reasonable "I just woke up, what's going on" single point of contact for my morning coffee before work. Rather than flicking through X number of different sites myself and sifting through a heap of garbage on each individual site that I don't care about at all.
 
Apple_Robert said:
Use a good RSS reader like "News Explorer" and you won't have to see ugly ads all over the place, not to mention you control what you want to see.

Apple news is junk.
Click to expand...
I've been wanting something like this since the days of Google reader. Thanks! And I can go direct to safari reader view from here super easily. Win win.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple_Robert
I am starting to use 'Newsy' more. Tired of getting "You must have News+ to read article". Just discovered I can resize images using edit feature! Sometimes images are larger than they need to be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back