Publishers Who Adopt Apple News Now Qualify for Reduced Commission on In-App Subscriptions

[dguisinger]

The New York Times is an app developer.

They develop the NYT app and are not part of News+ which means Apple gets a 30 percent cut from 1st year subscribers, but if they join News+, Apple will let the NYT keep 85 percent of subscriptions.

But... on the other hand, if you subscribe to News+, you may not feel the need to subscribe to NYT, and so ultimately its a terrible deal for the NYT who gets very little out of something like News+

 

[dwaite]

In other words, Apple is telling them, "Hey, if you scratch our back, we'll scratch yours."

So what is the market/customer harm again?

 

[dguisinger]

So what is the market/customer harm again?

Apple pays publishers much less for content than the publisher would get if you subscribed directly.... so its really back-dooring their subscribers into leaving the publisher subscription for a News+ subscription. Thats why NYT refuses to participate.

 

[dwaite]

But... on the other hand, if you subscribe to News+, you may not feel the need to subscribe to NYT, and so ultimately its a terrible deal for the NYT who gets very little out of something like News+

This does not require the publisher to participate in the News+ subscription, but rather to make their content consumable within the Apple News app based on a publisher subscription.

The line is most likely whether or not this pushes publishers to require subscriptions to be done by Apple within News+ - historically Apple has given significantly less user contact information and demographics to publishers than they want. Publishers want to charge you on the front-end and sell your information in aggregate on the back-end.

 

[hans1972]

Tim cook: "We treat every developer the same."


Yeah, whatever you say, Tim.

Every developer can take advantage of this program if they qualify.

 

[bgraham]

This is blatant monopoly behaviour.

 

[topdrawer]

i void middlemen as much as possible. news+ is no better than uber or doordash ruining direct business.

 

[matrix07]

Also side note: PLEASE MAKE A BROWSER VERSION. Would make my life a whole lot more enjoyable as my employer uses windows computers and would like to check in on news updates from time to time.

Wow. Great recommendation.

 

[So@So@So]

I am not sure if this kind of deals (Apple News -> 15%) is going to help Apple with antitrust ...

 

[DownUnderDan]

I don't use News much, but I've found that the more you use it and the more 👍 and/or 👎 you give to news articles, the better it gets.

If something comes up you're not interested in, block the topic or news channel, and follow the topics and channels you are interested in to fine tune the news stories.

You can't form an opinion if you don't hear both sides of an argument. The ability to curate the message is just so fundamentally dangerous for democracy. Apple News shouldn't allow you to do what you do, or Facebook for that matter.