Some Publishers Unhappy With Apple News+ Launch and Lack of Help From Apple

[Napalm Doctor]

The problem is that the app is not seamless right now. I had the sub for 1 week and then canceled for the following:

Some articles are behind paywall and not clearly indicated.

Apple pushes the sub way to much in the News App even when you have the sub.

I don’t read enough mags.

Does not have enough news outlet on it yet.

This app as lots of potential, but it needs to have a lot more content for the price and be way more polished. Give it a year then should be alright.

Edit: They should make a book library included with News+. Video, Audio, Reading, Gaming, Productivity, Connectivity services.

 

[tallscot]

The News app that is already in iOS and OS X is garbage. It's the reason I didn't even consider paying for this.

 

[cardfan]

A "service" like that is about ten years late. The Internet more or less killed print media, and most users are not willing to spend money to get past a paywall. This whole concept just shows how little the execs understand their own customer base -- or the impact of technology in general. The mature age of most decision makers at Apple doesn't help either to develop technological concepts and visions for the future. The only game that they're playing is entrenchment and securing the existing cash flow. Which, of course, will ultimately fail because technology always moves on, and since Steve Jobs passed away, Apple has only been playing the "me too" card. There never was "a fully filled product pipeline", there never were truly innovative new products, and everybody's still waiting for "the next big thing".

The next predictable failure: AppleTV+. A service that nobody needs and that will come without a convincing concept or attractive content. To add insult to injury, that service will compete with Disney+ and similar offerings.

I'm with you on Apple news. It's more like dated magazines and a gimped curation of WSJ. Mags are dinosaurs. The app is garbage.

For ATV+, it's best to think of Apple as a reseller of channels using original content purely as a means to get you to use their tv app.

None of this is going to make a dent in services revenue, help sell hardware, etc. Apple's problems remain.

 

[jlseattle]

We live in a generation where there is too much information, may it be free or not. There is so much to read, absorb, watch, listen these days no wonder I see people stressed out. People usually stick to a medium of consumption of choice, may it be a vLog, blog, social media or whatever. Apple is just providing options for people who prefer a specific medium for consumption. If you prefer one form over the other, why are people hating. I just don’t get it.

I believe this platform has unrealized potential. Apple could really make a move to get us "non-fake" news. News that is not partisan and as close to truth as possible. Yes, that could lead to orchestrating news but why not. Why not give us settings to filter down to articles that are fact based (collaborated by several sources) rather than opinion based. It would be nice to filter to just science articles in the news, magazines and such. Or filter down to collaborative, non political news and skip the latest "threat of the day from the left or the right". I just want news that I don't have to triple read and even then I know it is most likely more opinion than it is facts. We are struggling in this modern day and I feel like Apple would be perpetuating the problem for 9.99 a month rather than help solve the problem. I don't even read the news. And when I do, it look at each article very skeptical. I don't believe most news because it's more opinion than it is actual facts of what happened or is happening.

If Apple could take a heroic step forward in the news medium I would be interested. But I'm not paying to get agendas and narratives that I can consume for free.

 

[Smoothie]

I canceled my trial subscription a couple of days ago. The inconsistent display of magazine formats, the convoluted way to add a magazine as a favorite, the lack of accurate syncing across my devices and the poor training of Apple's support people in addressing issues were indicative of an ill-prepared launch. When I canceled, Apple didn't ask for reasons which might have helped them improve the product.

 

[Khedron]

I canceled my trial subscription a couple of days ago. The inconsistent display of magazine formats, the convoluted way to add a magazine as a favorite, the lack of accurate syncing across my devices and the poor training of Apple's support people in addressing issues were indicative of an ill-prepared launch. When I canceled, Apple didn't ask for reasons which might have helped them improve the product.

Tim doesn't care, he has celebrities to hang around with

 

[MarcKerr]

It's fairly obvious which mags are getting the better treatment. National Geographic would be one of those. It does have more whiz bang than sometime like Wood mag but honestly it's not that great of a user experience. So far everything about News+ is every thing wrong with this kind of walled off attempt to reinvent the web. Navigation of articles is dismal, it's easy to get lost in the mag and not know how to get back to the index. The indexes are just bad. Text sizing is fixed, that is you can't make the column wider. You can increase font size but it stays in the tiny width. Adds are somewhat non existent, which is actually part of why I subscribe to certain mags. There's often useful info in the adds for a product I've not seen before. There's way too many fixed size graphics that don't blowup larger for readability. It's truly a mess!

 

[npmacuser5]

100% agree, the Apple News+ app, does not have Apple quality. Actually the total opposite. Absolutely No continuity in interface. On a positive note, the content offerings are good on the magazine side. The News needs more work.

 

[TommyBoy5]

I bit on the 30-day free subscription four days ago. I put a bunch of magazines I love in my favorites. I went through them for about an hour. Really difficult on my 12" MacBook. Scrolling sucked. Full screen sucked. Paging through magazines sucked.

I closed it. I've received about 100 notifications through the days about articles. I've never clicked on one. I haven't reopened the News app since that first day.

I'll cancel it today.

Unusable to me - and I love magazines.

 

[dk001]

Tried it since the initial signup was free, gave it two weeks then dumped it.
I was hoping to get an alternative news / mag feed in place of a couple of current subscriptions including the WSJ.
Oops.

• Back issues in anything was a pain if you even could get to them.
• Content in some areas just not there in any quantity.
• WSJ in Apple News and my subscription differed. The WSJ subscription has more.
  • This also applied to other periodicals.
• I specifically excluded things like Fashion, Entertainment, Health, etc.. yet these would continue to show up and actually outnumbered my choices.
• Navigation was hit or miss and differed between content.
• At times the app just would not display content.

Went back to my current options. Price wasn't worth what you received.
This was a miss that should not have been.

 

[truthertech]

unless i am missing something i was forced to subscribe to news+ simply to read and article in the free version since they wouldn’t remove the ad for news+ that was blocking it

i have my calendar marked to cancel the day before it renews

my library has rb-digital which has a huge selection of the same magazines, not quite as polished (not that i’m saying apple’s is polished, it is not and needs a huge amount of work) but they look pretty much the same

frankly having to decide which one of dozens and dozens of magazines i want to read every month is exhausting

too much information apple

Yes, you misunderstood. You weren't seeing an article in Apple News, but rather a teaser of an article in Apple News + that you have to subscribe to in order to read. Similar to how the WSJ works where they give you the first paragraph or two but then the rest is grayed out unless you subscribe.

 

[krfr]

Time will tell if improvements will be made. I haven't tried News+ yet, but I rarely read magazines and I can get news in other places for free.

 

[Rookbird]

The quality of apples products and services have declined over the last couple of years. It's truly a shame, I was a hardened apple fan from 2005 - 2015. Now the only thing that continues to be top level are the damn prices.

Tim Cook only cares about squeezing as much money out of Apple as possible. Apple will be a sad sight when Tom finally leaves.
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That sums up just about everything that has gone wrong with Apple lately. They have the arrogance to try and claim to have improved the magazine reading experience, but leave the most important work off to some unknown 3rd party vendor because they're too cheap to do it themselves.

This explains their rationale behind removing functional ports from the MBs. Pat yourself on the back for a thin design... and then undercut your own design aesthetic by making users purchase ugly dongles because you're too cheap to include ports.

The sad thing is Apple has the people and resources to be the best company in the world but they would never get there under Tim Cook. He lacks any kind of vision other than the vision of dollar signs. I’m going to start calling him Tim Scrooge.

 

[Mendota]

They've done the biggest digital music store in the world.
They run the most lucrative and impactful App Store in the world.
iCloud is now a huge success story.
Apple Music is the biggest music subscription service in the US, and also expanding rapidly around the world.
Apple Pay has been a game changer.
And services revenue continues to soar upwards to the delight of investors.

Yeah Apple can't do services.

iCloud is the worst cloud service in existence. It is a complete and utter joke compared to OneDrive, Google, and Dropbox.

Apple pay is used in very few places.

Apple music is not rapidly expanding around the world because Android is used more world wide. If not for the US Apple would be way behind, and now US sales are falling.

And other services are not overly inspiring either. Investors are not impressed which is why Apple stock has not yet recovered from it's last downfall.

 

[jlseattle]

iCloud is the worst cloud service in existence. It is a complete and utter joke compared to OneDrive, Google, and Dropbox.

Apple pay is used in very few places.

Apple music is not rapidly expanding around the world because Android is used more world wide. If not for the US Apple would be way behind, and now US sales are falling.

And other services are not overly inspiring either. Investors are not impressed which is why Apple stock has not yet recovered from it's last downfall.

I disagree with your opinion about icloud. Everyone I know has it for cloud storage for documents seamlessly to all your mac devices that integrates into the OS. Yes the other services work but they aren't as seamless.

Apple Music has me for life. Tried others, they are "ok".

I don't use apple pay but all my friends do. Enough said.

 

[Shirasaki]

You need to stick with it. Things will improve. Apple News+ is an amazing value when you look at the content you're getting across your devices.
[doublepost=1555371017][/doublepost]

High quality content isn't cheap to produce. You should give Apple News+ a few months at least to see how it fits into your life.
[doublepost=1555371096][/doublepost]

If Steve Jobs was still around, he'd be arranging one-on-one meetings with anyone who wanted one - both large and small publishers.

Or alternatively, one can keep an eye on the growth of the service and decide whether to jump the ship later on. Just FYI.

 

[TommyBoy5]

iCloud is the worst cloud service in existence. It is a complete and utter joke compared to OneDrive, Google, and Dropbox.

Apple pay is used in very few places.

Apple music is not rapidly expanding around the world because Android is used more world wide. If not for the US Apple would be way behind, and now US sales are falling.

And other services are not overly inspiring either. Investors are not impressed which is why Apple stock has not yet recovered from it's last downfall.

Huh? I used it with my Apple Watch today at Target, Trader Joe's and McDonalds. Very useful.

 

[Tech198]

Only the big, survive...

Apple can only do this to the smaller ones, because they can. The only option is to not be part of the service.

Everyone wants a smooth experience throughout, and you never get that anymore.

 

[Gogeta-Blue]

Your short-term memory loss is gold medal stuff. Under Uncle Steve we had MobileMe. Ebook scandal to raise prices. And oh yeah, he dropped Computer from Apple Computer. Apple, under Steve Jobs, stopped caring about making useful tools a looooong time ago. It’s been Fisher-Price since then.

Tim lover detected, I never attack any user, I only give my opinion about Tim
but you sent a direct attack to me
no problem , is all good
trying to make Steve look bad is not going to make Tim look good
just saying
I have a very good memory, but you don't know that because you don't know me
I can tell you are a Tim supporter, no problem ,I respect that
Steve is gone, but if I would it had the opportunity or privilege to walk or hang with "uncle Steve" for a minute
that would it be awesome, rather that hang with mr boring, totally uncool Timmy boy

anyway no problemo dude

hope Timmy doesn't let you down, like he did with many others
air power, lol

not everyone is under hypnosis not everyone is blind by fanaticism
there are some people who are awake and aware and can see clearly

anyway, peace

 

[Fiachers]

I just find it funny when this forum loses their collective cool every time Apple announces new watch bands, not realising (or at least, not willing to acknowledge) that easily interchangeable bands are a key reason why the Apple Watch is even as popular as it is.

Their view of the world is basically based on what they see around them most - cost leadership, divisional organizational structure, growth through M&A's, engineering-led. For them, Apple is a puzzle as it is different in every single way and brings them discomfort.

Here’s what I believe will happen. Apple will continue to do the exact same things they have been doing that will rankle the critics here. Oh, the flames, the bashing, the criticism, the outrage, they will all come. The cries that Apple has lost its innovative edge will grow louder and louder.

And you know what? It’s not going to change the fact that Apple will go on to become insanely successful. Because like I said, we are effectively watching two movies on the same screen now. The very things the critics hate Apple for doing are the exact same things people like myself love Apple for doing.

And guess which group outnumbers the other?

Who cares if they're "insanely" successful? Who cares if any multi-billion dollar company is successful, seriously? You should care about their products and whether they serve you than cheerleading a corporation like some football cheerleader. Dumb.

 

[Abazigal]

Who cares if they're "insanely" successful? Who cares if any multi-billion dollar company is successful, seriously? You should care about their products and whether they serve you than cheerleading a corporation like some football cheerleader. Dumb.

One would care if they were interested in having an honest conversation about the merits of what a company is doing, rather than just bashing them in a vacuum.

If Apple is insanely profitable, it shows that on some level, Apple is serving a large segment of their customers who in turn vote with their wallets.

Not everything is about you. If a company stops making products that resonate with you, then maybe the best thing to do is to move on, because times do change, and people and companies too do move in keeping with those times.

Just because Apple isn’t doing something that you would like them to do doesn’t mean they have lost the plot. Likewise, just because you want Apple to do something doesn’t mean that they have to do it, or that it necessarily makes sense from a company perspective.

I don’t think it’s about blind cheerleading, but being able to see the big picture and understand why Apple does things the way they do. Which again, comes back to my original point about caring enough to engage in a cogent and well-reasoned discussion, rather than flood the forums with a myriad of “Apple is doomed” posts which I feel are even more meaningless.

 

[Suttree]

Tim lover detected, I never attack any user, I only give my opinion about Tim
but you sent a direct attack to me
no problem , is all good
trying to make Steve look bad is not going to make Tim look good
just saying
I have a very good memory, but you don't know that because you don't know me
I can tell you are a Tim supporter, no problem ,I respect that
Steve is gone, but if I would it had the opportunity or privilege to walk or hang with "uncle Steve" for a minute
that would it be awesome, rather that hang with mr boring, totally uncool Timmy boy

anyway no problemo dude

hope Timmy doesn't let you down, like he did with many others
air power, lol

not everyone is under hypnosis not everyone is blind by fanaticism
there are some people who are awake and aware and can see clearly

anyway, peace

You are being emotional. I suggest calming down. Take a deep breath. Also, I suggest getting some reading comprehension skills, although it’s forgiveable if English is not your first language. But, sure, read my anti-Apple comment as an endorsement for Tim Cook. Congrats on embarrassing yourself. Enjoy your Apple products while I enjoy my superior Samsung phone and my gaming PC that DESTROYS anything you have and paid 3x for. You’re a winner.

 

[Mendota]

Huh? I used it with my Apple Watch today at Target, Trader Joe's and McDonalds. Very useful.

Only about a third of merchants as of this date, compared to everywhere with Visa or MasterCard, or Discover. And once again, the United States is not the whole world.
[doublepost=1555530882][/doublepost]

I disagree with your opinion about icloud. Everyone I know has it for cloud storage for documents seamlessly to all your mac devices that integrates into the OS. Yes the other services work but they aren't as seamless.

Apple Music has me for life. Tried others, they are "ok".

I don't use apple pay but all my friends do. Enough said.

That is apparently because everyone you know uses Apple.... iCloud can only store select data. It can't even store a simple text file. It can't store pictures unless you jump through Apple's convoluted hoops and do it the Apple way. I use my iPad for some of my art, sketching. I tried to use iCloud to store the sketches for later use... wouldn't work. I had to use OneDrive in order for the sketches to be available everywhere. That is just one example.

With OneDrive I can store anything, pictures, documents, applications, movies, etc. If it was not for OneDrive my Mac would be almost unusable. I keep a Apple folder on one drive to store it's applications such as Painter and Office for easy install. They are not on the App store.

There are no limitations with OneDrive or Google for that matter. I don't use Google drive much because of their EULA, but it is still more versatile than iCloud. But you see you don't know that because you are locked into Apple and you believe everything they tell you.
[doublepost=1555531027][/doublepost]

Tim lover detected, I never attack any user, I only give my opinion about Tim
but you sent a direct attack to me
no problem , is all good
trying to make Steve look bad is not going to make Tim look good
just saying
I have a very good memory, but you don't know that because you don't know me
I can tell you are a Tim supporter, no problem ,I respect that
Steve is gone, but if I would it had the opportunity or privilege to walk or hang with "uncle Steve" for a minute
that would it be awesome, rather that hang with mr boring, totally uncool Timmy boy

anyway no problemo dude

hope Timmy doesn't let you down, like he did with many others
air power, lol

not everyone is under hypnosis not everyone is blind by fanaticism
there are some people who are awake and aware and can see clearly

anyway, peace

"Trying to make Steve look bad is not going to make Tim look good." I couldn't have stated it better. 100% agree.

 

[slomojoe]

Yes, you misunderstood. You weren't seeing an article in Apple News, but rather a teaser of an article in Apple News + that you have to subscribe to in order to read. Similar to how the WSJ works where they give you the first paragraph or two but then the rest is grayed out unless you subscribe.

ok, sounds right, whatever it was, it was intrusive and unwelcome

texture wasn’t a big success and there is a good reason, magazines formatted like magazines in digital format just don’t work and second, i really think i am not alone in thinking that opening up 200 magazines to try and pick one is just information overload

apple will need to do a lot of work to deliver content in a way that will compel subscribers

i will likely never subscribe but i will say that i enjoy the regular news part, it looks fairly good and the story mix isn’t bad

 

[Gogeta-Blue]

You are being emotional. I suggest calming down. Take a deep breath. Also, I suggest getting some reading comprehension skills, although it’s forgiveable if English is not your first language. But, sure, read my anti-Apple comment as an endorsement for Tim Cook. Congrats on embarrassing yourself. Enjoy your Apple products while I enjoy my superior Samsung phone and my gaming PC that DESTROYS anything you have and paid 3x for. You’re a winner.

i’m emotional lol, i embarrassed myself, haha you’re too much, i’m a hackintosh user, you talk and you assumed too much, you pc will destroy my pc only if your tower cost more that 7000 dollars, just the tower alone, anyway thanks for your comment i had a good time, your cool and funny but in the good way, seriously, i have no problem with you

peace