Report Suggests Apple News+ Still Having Little Impact on Publisher Revenues

[nostresshere]

Along with issues mentioned earlier, there is another major marketing problem.

It is a MAGAZINE service - not a NEWS service.

 

[goobot]

Along with issues mentioned earlier, there is another major marketing problem.

It is a MAGAZINE service - not a NEWS service.

It seems to be a digital print service but it seems pretty half baked to me. Apple should have focused on growing the service first but they needed to bleed it for 50%, so they have only a few news partners. They should incorporate iBooks into it and maybe give you one free book ‘stream’ per month with it or something.

 

[macduke]

Real talk: People get most of their news from Twitter and FaceBook, unfortunately.

Furthermore, a 50% cut is super greedy on Apple’s part. It’s no wonder they aren’t making money.

 

[npmacuser5]

News+ needs just paid news as an option. That is newspapers, news magazines, anything news. No magazines that are not news. Split the plus into two types, and three options. News, Magazines, and both News and Magazines options. Adjust pricing accordingly.

 

[rcooked]

I’d consider a $150 yearly bundle for music, news, TV+. I’m getting sick of all the monthly crap - just cancelled Netflix personally.

 

[duervo]

I signed up for the 1 month free trial. Canceled it after a couple weeks. Wasn’t worth it, IMO.

 

[Jakewilk]

I cancelled because I was appalled that at $10 a month I still had to look at ads. Also there is no premium curation. I would pay good money for a separete premium article feed; wouldn’t have to be news only either with all the non-news content in available through apple news+. Premium journalism is worth the money... if it’s also ad free

 

[RevTEG]

20K a month revenue for ONE publisher and they are complaining. Amazing! In some countries you make that 20K in TWO YEARS!

In some countries they don’t make that in a lifetime. 20k isn’t much for a large publisher. That probably wouldn’t even cover their electric bill.

 

[incoherent_1]

The early posts on this article largely misunderstand what is happening about news.

Apple News is phenomenally successful. In fact, it is the largest news service in the world, with tens of millions of regular readers, probably close to a hundred million based on the time since their last update a couple of years ago. So, in terms of consuming actual news, in contrast to people saying there's nothing compelling, people couldn't be more wrong. That's the free version.

Apple News Plus isn't about news per se; it's really a magazine service. A great one at that, but it's hard for people to discover that about it unless they take a free trial and really use it. Also, since the number of people who read and subscribe to magazines has plummeted, people aren't used to even perusing them. The magic bullet for this service to take off will be figuring out a way for people to discover the great in depth individual articles that magazines have as people aren't likely to go back to a mode where they "bought" an individual magazine and went through it cover to cover. You did that because of the cost of each magazine and because you didn't have the plethora of reading options.

“Largest news service in the world” — do you have a citation?

I would be utterly shocked if Apple News even comes close to Google News, just to make one major competitor.

 

[Zimmy68]

Along with issues mentioned earlier, there is another major marketing problem.

It is a MAGAZINE service - not a NEWS service.

I jumped in on a trial when they were offering the 3 month deal.
My biggest takeaway is this. That is the main problem.
I would expect, for $10/month, daily news aggregation from major sites.
You get that from the free tier.
I would like a professional version of that. Anything that has a paywall on a browser would be delivered through News+.
Instead, I go there and see a wall of magazines I flipped through already.

 

[Royksöpp]

The App is terrible and I'm so disappointed. Texture had finally reached it's peak. It was fast, reliable, and a joy to use. Then Apple swooped in and destroyed it. They also took almost 4 years of archives with it. I don't want to browse the entire catalog. I want all my magazines in one place. They should have just gave Texture a makeover and renamed it Newsstand. What a mess.

 

[newyorksole]

They do advertise these services, especially Arcade.

On television?

 

[truthertech]

“Largest news service in the world” — do you have a citation?

I would be utterly shocked if Apple News even comes close to Google News, just to make one major competitor.

Facts matter more than your feelings. Consider yourself shocked. It's understandable, though, you read a bunch of posts from people not liking Apple News Plus, and then the bloggers who post these articles on places like Macrumors don't bother to differentiate the free Apple News service which undoubtedly now has over a 100 MILLION regular monthly readers from Apple News Plus, which is mainly a magazine service, not a news service, and you form the mistaken idea that Apple News is not doing well.

"That's the assurance that Apple already offers to existing users of Apple News, which the company boasts is now the world's biggest news app, with more than 5 billion articles read each month." The Verge Mar 25, 2019

A year ago was at 90 MILLION " Apple News services hits 90 Million readers" https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/25...90-million-readers-subscription-service-rumor

 

[incoherent_1]

Facts matter more than your feelings. Consider yourself shocked. It's understandable, though, you read a bunch of posts from people not liking Apple News Plus, and then the bloggers who post these articles on places like Macrumors don't bother to differentiate the free Apple News service which undoubtedly now has over a 100 MILLION regular monthly readers from Apple News Plus, which is mainly a magazine service, not a news service, and you form the mistaken idea that Apple News is not doing well.

"That's the assurance that Apple already offers to existing users of Apple News, which the company boasts is now the world's biggest news app, with more than 5 billion articles read each month." The Verge Mar 25, 2019

A year ago was at 90 MILLION " Apple News services hits 90 Million readers" https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/25...90-million-readers-subscription-service-rumor

Yes, facts matter more than emotions, which is why I asked for a citation.

I see nothing here or in the story saying it’s the biggest “service” in the world — your word, not mine. This article says “news app”. Two completely different things — words matter.

 

[Plett]

I really wanted to love the service. Gave it a solid go, and just couldn't stomach it. As others have mentioned the two types of magazines in the UI are horrific. Love the idea, but a magazine has a difficult time being a magazine on an iPad, and even more challenging on smaller screens. The news side of the service is meh, to many duplicitous stories, sufficient free content to get the gist of things.

Maybe as part of a TV/Music/Arcade/News bundle thing, but not ad hoc, and not at $10US.