The New York Times Ends Apple News Partnership and Pulls All Articles

[MacRumors]

The New York Times today announced that it is pulling out of Apple News, as the service does not "align with its strategy of building direct relationships with paying readers."

Starting today, articles from The New York Times will no longer show up in the Apple News app. The news site says that Apple has given it "little in the way of direct relationships with readers" and "little control over the business." Rather than allowing its articles on Apple News, The New York Times wants to drive readers to its own website and app.

"Core to a healthy model between The Times and the platforms is a direct path for sending those readers back into our environments, where we control the presentation of our report, the relationships with our readers, and the nature of our business rules," Meredith Kopit Levien, chief operating officer, wrote in a memo to employees. "Our relationship with Apple News does not fit within these parameters."

In a statement, an Apple spokesperson said that The New York Times only provided a few Apple News stories a day and that Apple News will still provide readers with trusted information from thousands of other publishers. "We are also committed to supporting quality journalism through the proven business models of advertising, subscriptions, and commerce," said the spokesperson.

The New York Times, along with The Washington Post, was a publication that Apple courted to participate in Apple News+, Apple's paid news service. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other major news sites declined to participate, though Apple did ink deals with The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and Condé Nast.

Apple News+ was not enticing as The New York Times has its own successful online subscription option already. The New York Times says that advertising in the standard Apple News app has also "generated little revenue for news organizations," plus Apple takes a 30 percent cut of subscriptions sold in the app.

The New York Times has more than six million subscribers and has seen increasing revenue from digital subscriptions on its site. The New York Times does not expect exiting Apple News to have a "material impact" on its business, and the company will continue to work with Apple on apps and podcasts.

Article Link: The New York Times Ends Apple News Partnership and Pulls All Articles

 

[johannnn]

This thing would have been more successful if Craig was heading it.

 

[anshuvorty]

Not surprised...Apple News, just from the beginning seemed like it wouldn't work out. At least Apple tried, I will give them that.

 

[dannyyankou]

At least let us access our subscription, don’t pull everything altogether.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

This makes sense, I’m not the biggest fan of the Apple News interface. That said, NYT has barely been worth a subscription for years either. Hopefully departures like this light a fire under Apple’s butts before publications I like jump ship.

 

[CWallace]

I liked the idea of Apple News in theory, but chose to directly subscribe to The NYT directly (along with The Washington Post) and continue my physical subscriptions to my handful of magazines. Maybe I am just too Old School.

 

[PJWilkin]

I always found the quality of the NYT articles poor

Given some of the recent decisions by the NYT I won’t miss them

 

[alexandr]

what a sad day for trustworthy journalism... blech.

 

[macduke]

Apple needs to focus. They are all over the place.

 

[orbital~debris]

I’m glad I extended my subscription this weekend for another year of NYT.

They gave me a very fair U.K. price for quality content when I renewed.

I do occasionally read their articles via Apple News, but it’s much nicer, more conducive experience to read the content in the NYT app.

(I’m not knocking Apple News+ though… it is a nice supplement to NYT, The Times [of London], Guardian and Washington Post apps, with all the great magazine content and aggregated news from various topics around the web.)

 

[and 1989 others]

An interesting move.

However, I know hundreds of people with iphones. Zero use apple
News. Neither do I. I 'curate' my own news feed to get balances reporting.

 

[nwcs]

Desiring a more direct relationship with subscriber = we want more data to resell.

 

[Sethal]

I'm still flabbergasted that people pay for news articles in the first place.

 

[really???]

I certainly wouldn't call them a good source for the news anyway. ... Buh bye

 

[Wags]

Or mad because Apple not going to hide their spying on people’s clipboards. Interesting timing.

 

[Jay42]

I can't imagine Apple News Plus subscriber growth is doing great these days. Hardly hear anything about it.

 

[omenatarhuri]

I'm still flabbergasted that people pay for news articles in the first place.

Not really for news articles, but some of the high-quality papers do really nice in-depth articles where the journalists actually research the phenomena behind current events and possible outcomes. I find these fascinating and ultimately it would better to read a handful of these than read the fast-news all-day.

 

[acgmph]

Whatever, I won't miss it

I'm still flabbergasted that people pay for news articles in the first place.

Depends on the news. I pay for The Economist and FT.

 

[clayj]

Shorter NYT: "We're not making enough money from this."

 

[cmaier]

Still a cheap way to read the Wall Street journal

 

[dspdoc]

Apple needs to focus. They are all over the place.

Perfectly said!

 

[CWallace]

Shorter NYT: "We're not making enough money from this."

To be fair, they are not (compared to their direct subs), assuming Apple is taking their 50% cut.

 

[JPack]

Well yeah, what's the benefit for the New York Times? Apple News only encourages readers to sign up for Apple News+. NYT is already a strong enough brand to generate its own subscriptions.

 

[BigMcGuire]

At least let us access our subscription, don’t pull everything altogether.

Agreed. This rubs me the wrong way imo. I can access my paid subscription to Economist and WSJ in Apple News - which is nice, but I couldn't ever get that to work with NYT.

 

[hagjohn]

Desiring a more direct relationship with subscriber = we want more data to resell.

Means they want the full subscription price.