Publishers Not Making Much Money From Apple News+

[simonmet]

Because its not so great. You cant control what is downloaded and when its deleted. I downloaded a bunch of magiznes before a long flight to Hawaii and it decided it would auto delete them so most were missing for my flight....No option to turn auto delete off......Canceled

Wow, that’s bad.

 

[robjulo]

I was talking specifics...about the specific publishers who are with Apple News who weren't before and the revenue before and after......my point wasn't hard to understand. The specific poster I quoted has a track record of simply trolling pro-Apple.....multiple posts a day.....I suggest you do a quick search of poster's prior posts.

Why are you arguing over this point? It’s like someone saying “the sky is blue,” and because you’re too lazy to go outside to look up, you just reply with “prove it for me.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’ll help. Quick Bing search—

The estimated aggregate revenue of U.S. based periodical publishers has fallen sharply in the past decade from 46 billion U.S. dollars in 2007 to around 28 billion in 2017. Americans spent an average of 24 minutes reading magazines on a daily basis in 2010. This figure is forecast to decline to 15 minutes by 2018. Although the time spent with magazines is declining, the number of magazine readers in the U.S. has seen a slight increased since 2012. The number of magazines in the U.S. has also stayed fairly constant over the years, varying from around 7,100 to 7,300 since 2008.
​

Do you need me to help with proving newspaper readership is declining as well?

 

[RudySnow]

I was talking specifics...about the specific publishers who are with Apple News who weren't before and the revenue before and after......my point wasn't hard to understand. The specific poster I quoted has a track record of simply trolling pro-Apple.....multiple posts a day.....I suggest you do a quick search of poster's prior posts.

You’re just arguing for argument’s sake. Look it up yourself.

 

[macfacts]

Publishers weren’t making much money before Apple News, which is why they made the deal.

Probably had to do with apple introducing ad blockers in safari. News sites didn't like that.

 

[Glockworkorange]

I for one love Apple News+. However, I theorize the problem that Apple’s seeing with it are not in content or price but rather in the UI and UX. The user interface is a cluttered mess and, like Apple Music, it’s not clear how to navigate or turn off/on certain features. Apple needs to rethink the UI and UX, which will in turn make it easier for them to show value to consumers within the app.

YES. The UI is painful. Additionally, the PDF spreads just really suck as compared to the publications taking advantage of the UI Apple wants them all to use.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Well, it was pretty obvious.

- 50% Apple cut
- Not multi-platform
- Magazine as a medium is dead compared to YouTube

2/3rds of the wealth in the US is 65 and older. They aren't watching YouTube. They are regular print and slowly moving to iPad format.

 

[dannyyankou]

Well, it was pretty obvious.

- 50% Apple cut
- Not multi-platform
- Magazine as a medium is dead compared to YouTube

Yeah I think Apple should get a smaller cut than what they get with the App Store, like 25/75. At least Apple provides the SDK with apps.

 

[JosephAW]

This is the new norm for publishers. They have to get skinny.

 

[Solomani]

- Magazine as a medium is dead compared to YouTube

"People don't read any more." - Steve Jobs

 

[gaagaagiw]

Perhaps their unique selling proposition should be that they guarantee the news they publish is factual and unbiased. You just can't get that anywhere, so it would be worth paying for.

How is Apple going to guarantee unbiased news? There isn't a single unbiased news outlet in the country. As long as news is written by humans (or by algorithms designed by humans), claiming news can be truly unbiased is foolish.

 

[RudySnow]

This is the new norm for publishers. They have to get skinny.

It’s their fault no matter the platform. Newspapers didn’t understand profitability on the web in the mid-90s. Because of the lack of paywalls for so long, they now have a hard time acquiring paid subscribers because so much content is available elsewhere for free. But the truth is that most media makes profit from advertisers, and thus it becomes a vicious circle—more eyeballs, more ads and better pricing, but the content is still free or else they can’t attract readers.

Bottom line, they controlled their financial destiny at the start of the internet but didn’t know how to capitalize.

 

[coolkid93]

Shocker

 

[b11051973]

I did the trial. I don't actually want to read magazines. So, I cancelled before the trial ended.

Also, I did look at a couple magazines. They are like 70% ads. I don't remember magazines being that way when I had subscriptions 100 years ago.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Who is surprised when they’re “curating” what can and can’t be in their news app?? *chuckle*

 

[KrispE00]

$10/month is too expensive for the number of back-issues available. I expected at least 5-10 years of back-issues. They barely have a few months of some magazines. And most are just normal PDFs.

 

[matrix07]

I can understand it. People get subscription fatigue. I even want to subscribe to it a few times but don’t because of navigation issue. You couldn’t get to your magazines easily. If Apple fix that then I will. In the meantime, News is serving me well.

 

[somethingelsefl]

If Apple had a Books+ I would subscribe. Or Audiobooks+.

Otherwise, News+ is just a collection of static websites

 

[RudySnow]

If Apple had a Books+ I would subscribe. Or Audiobooks+.

Otherwise, News+ is just a collection of static websites

OMG what an awesome idea!

I would love this. I always wished Apple had an e-ink reader (I.e. Kindle) so I can read by the pool. I would rather stay in the Apple ecosystem rather than Amazon in most cases. If Apple had Books+ I would love it.

 

[Lesser Evets]

1)Most magazines are useless, compared to the speed of the internet. You get much better info by digging it up.

2) Magazines and newspapers were well suited to another era when people sat around on buses, in barber shops, in waiting rooms, and didn't have devices to browse the internet.

3) I haven't read a magazine in about 3 decades that had anything truly worthwhile--they are fluff media for neophytes and tourists.

4) News, and information, is now so sketchy and suspect that it created a majority of apathetic or sardonic readers. People will only return when integrity returns to print.... probably going to take decades.

So Apple is riding a horse that is dead and getting kicked by a few dozen publishers or curators.

Apple used to be ahead of the curve. Now they are a mile behind.

 

[Baymowe335]

I want specifics....don’t make a strawman argument...address the points I specifically addressed.

No, do your own research if you think the publishing business is flourishing. I’m not here to prove the Earth is round to you.

 

[anthogag]

I like News+. Access to so many magazines is great. I am reading many magazines I would otherwise not read.

There are issues with the app. Often, over WiFi, magazine pages take a 'while' to load or don't load at all. It can be annoying.

When I finish reading a magazine I want to swipe it away. Currently magazines I finish remain in "My Magazines". This is not good.

Many magazines have pages that don't zoom in and pictures I cannot make bigger. It may be okay on an iPad but on my iPhone Xs is sucks!

Having to open the app for News and News+ is disjointed. It should be easier/faster to get to News articles and magazines. It could be on the lock screen. Then I could quickly start reading News articles and magazines

 

[Awsaim]

Is anyone truly surprised?

 

[iMaK18]

Magazines need to realize that their medium is dying. It’s almost completely obsolete.

They all need to innovate their medium so magazines can be reborn into this day & age.

they are all sitting too comfortable with what they have and they are riding a wave that’s going to crash soon.

 

[iRutherford]

Make it available internationally?

 

[MacBH928]

Of course they will not be making much money... Magazines are pretty much a dead business. Just like video rental stores, they used to be big but technological advancement and social behaviour changed too.