Wall Street Journal to Join Apple's News Subscription Service, but NYT and Washington Post Not Participating

[MacRumors]

The Wall Street Journal plans to join Apple's subscription news service that's set to be announced Monday, reports The New York Times. Other publications like the Washington Post and The New York Times itself are not on board, however, due to the revenue split Apple has requested.

Apple and The Wall Street Journal plan to announce the partnership at Apple's planned media event on March 25. Apple's subscription service for Apple News will provide readers with access to news articles and magazines from "hundreds" of participating publishers for one monthly fee, thought to be $9.99 per month.

Rumors have suggested that Apple has been having trouble securing deals with news sites like The New York Times and the Washington Post because Apple wants to keep 50 percent of all subscription revenue, splitting the other 50 percent of the revenue between publishers according to the amount of time users spend engaged with their articles.

Major paywalled news sites offer their own subscription access to articles, with revenue that does not need to be shared with Apple. Participating in Apple's service could cause current subscribers to swap over, leading to overall lower revenue.

Apple is also declining to provide credit card information or email addresses to publishers, details that news sites use to create customer databases and market their products, and they're asking partners to provide unlimited access to content.

To lure publishers to join its Apple News service, Apple executives are citing the scale of Apple News, which is installed on all iOS devices out of the box. Apple is telling publishers that millions of new customers could be introduced to their content, but some are not convinced.

Many magazine publishers are on board with Apple's proposed revenue terms, but most magazines have no existing online revenue streams. Magazine publishers have also already been working with the 50/50 revenue split following Apple's acquisition of Texture, the magazine subscription service Apple is basing its new offering on.

Apple will debut its new subscription service for Apple News at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, March 25. Apple will also use the same event to unveil its rumored streaming video service.

Article Link: Wall Street Journal to Join Apple's News Subscription Service, but NYT and Washington Post Not Participating

 

[rosegoldoli]

this subscription service is gonna fail

 

[smorrissey]

Good i only need CNN.

 

[Mansu944]

Good i only need CNN.

Sarcasm?

Big mistake for these papers...at least try it for a while.

 

[341328]

Apples dictator style way of business means I’m switching to android and refusing to buy apples services.

It should be about competition and innovation.

 

[Frankied22]

Can’t wait to see this flop. Apple are in la la land with this one. The majority of people don’t give a **** about paying for news. The written word is free all over the internet.

 

[brendu]

I prefer WSJ over either of those outlets anyway. Their loss. I’m planning on giving this a try to see how it is.

 

[bozzykid]

Sarcasm?

Big mistake for these papers...at least try it for a while.

It makes little sense for newspapers. It’s more likely to attract magazines instead.

 

[DoctorTech]

I am looking forward to trying this service. Whether I keep it long term will all depend on which content creators end up participating but I am hopeful this will catch on like Apple Music.

 

[ThaRuler]

Is the LA TIMES on board? If so, I will bite since I’m already a subscriber

 

[genovelle]

They are currently at the mercy of Google and Facebook. One little change in the algorithm and they are toast. Even ad placements can dry up. I thought they would keep their ad revenue for ads placed in the system. I believe this is a stall tactic, much like the auto industry did to CarPlay. They waited 3 years for Google to catch-up before they installed it in force. Then they waited another two years to even start supporting wireless CarPlay. Once again waiting for Google to catch-up.

 

[fumi2014]

Not surprised NYT and WP have not signed on. Why would you give Apple 50% of your profits in an age when you have enough trouble getting people to pay for newspaper at all? This service will fail, IMO.

 

[dannyyankou]

Good, don't need them

I hope The Athletic joins, they have great sports journalism.

 

[Khedron]

At least Google and Facebook only sell your information to advertisers.

Apple uses your custom to set up protection rackets to threaten other industries.

 

[jhwalker]

The Wall Street Journal plans to join Apple's subscription news service that's set to be announced Monday, reports The New York Times. Other publications like the Washington Post and The New York Times itself are not on board, however, due to the revenue split Apple has requested.

...

NYT and WP are actually the ONLY news sources I'm interested in reading, so ...

 

[fumi2014]

Good, don't need them

Maybe you don't but the service looks less attractive to people if the choices are limited.

 

[nutmac]

this subscription service is gonna fail

While that is a likely outcome, the current state of news websites is a mess.

To name a few, adblocker vs. paywall and subscription fatigue.

For those willing to subscribe to one or two participating news services, reported $9.99/month Apple News subscription fee is compelling. I am just not sure the market is all that large to begin with.

 

[deebinem]

Not surprising about NYT, it seems they are already trying to drum up enough money on their own, judging by the amount of subscription blurbs on The Daily podcast. I can't imagine they'd want to give 50% to Apple.

 

[Moonlight]

I am looking forward to trying this service. Whether I keep it long term will all depend on which content creators end up participating but I am hopeful this will catch on like Apple Music.

Thanks for the positive comment. Unlike all the other negative ones.

 

[dannyyankou]

Can’t wait to see this flop. Apple are in la la land with this one. The majority of people don’t give a **** about paying for news. The written word is free all over the internet.

It's not just news, it's magazines as well

 

[WannaGoMac]

Sure hope this doesn't mean Apple news is gonna require subscription to be decent. I've come to really like it.

 

[deebinem]

Thanks for the positive comment. Unlike all the other negative ones.

Welcome to MacRumors! Its a veritable sh*tshow in here...

 

[crossb8]

I don't think there are enough people who are interested in reading the news to make this successful. This is especially true when you add paying for it into the equation. There are too many quality sources of information that are free, whether print or video. I do get annoyed at times when I can't read an intriguing article because it is under a pay wall, but it's not very often.

 

[pmore]

I don't think these new Apple services will succeed.

 

[Khedron]

Is the LA TIMES on board? If so, I will bite since I’m already a subscriber

So you like the LA Times and already have access to their content but want them to receive less revenue? How much would you save with Apple News?

To me the subscription only makes sense for discovering and trying new sources, otherwise you're just deliberately harming the content creators you already enjoy.