Apple News Underwhelming Publishers
Apple News Underwhelming Publishers
By Tom Dotan June 28, 2019
Apple’s foray into being a platform for premium
publishers isn’t off to a great start. This piece from Business Insider, which
takes the temperature of participating publishers a few months after Apple News
+ launched, finds that people are underwhelmed with revenue. One publisher said
so far it’s delivered one-twentieth of what Apple projected.
Apple’s promise with the News+ app was to give magazines
(and some newspapers like the LA Times) a new revenue source. For a monthly
fee, subscribers get access to a wide selection of publications, which split a
portion of the subscription fee. Apple’s pitch to publishers was that
participation would bring substantial new audiences (and revenue) by letting
them tap into iOS’s massive user base.
If the BI report is accurate, it’s not only publishers
who are likely to be disappointed. Apple has high hopes riding on the success
of its services business—including Apple News+—
now that phone sales have slowed. It raises stakes even more for the
yet-to-be launched video service.
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