Apple Finally Kills Newsstand to Make Way for Apple News
News junkies rejoice! If you have an iOS device, you’ll soon have a new way to read news. Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 9, goes live today, and brings with it the chance to try Apple’s new newsreader, Apple News.
The gorgeous app will allow people to read, share, and save stories to read offline. People will be able to add preferred publishers to their favorites, allowing them to curate feeds from news outlets they enjoy. And Apple News will learn a user’s preferences and tailor what she sees based upon what she’s read in the past.
“News is smart,” Apple vice president of product management and marketing Susan Prescott said when Apple announced News in June. “The more I read, the better it gets at showing me stories I’m interested in.”
In other words, if Apple News works as promised, it will be the polar opposite of Newsstand. The skeuomorphic relic of iOS 5 bracketed off publications on a dumb shelf in some weird limbo between app and folder. Its key features included long download times and a maddening inability to delete it or, until iOS 7 came along, even hide it in another folder.
As of iOS 9, subscribers to Newsstand-based magazines or newspapers will see the Newsstand app replaced with a folder that looks like any other, but prepopulated with the publications you’re subscribed to. Unlike on Newsstand, however, magazines and newspaper icons will look like those of any other app.
Newsstand to News
Giving up on Newsstand, however, doesn’t mean Apple is abandoning its interest in corralling news into an iOS-native format. Apple News offers publishers another way to get their content (and ads) in front of you, but within the confines of an Apple-controlled user experience. The app will feature news only from specific partners, expected to be about 50 at launch. They include The New York Times, BuzzFeed, ESPN, and—full disclosure—WIRED.
Though Apple News ultimately is under Apple’s control, publishers will be able to customize stories so they have the look and feel of their own design and brand sensibilities, including photos, videos, and infographics. No plans have been announced for paid subscriptions or authentication into existing subscriptions in Apple News.
As on Facebook and Snapchat, Apple News offers publishers another venue for serving content to readers in exchange for surrendering a degree of control. The tradeoff may be worth it; news organizations will keep 100 percent of the revenue for ads they sell on Apple News, while Apple will pocket 30 percent if it helps sell ads using its iAds ad tech.
The other reason publishers may eagerly get on board with Apple News is that, after iOS 9’s launch, the mobile web will become less ad-friendly on the iPhone. For the first time, Apple is letting users block unwanted ads in Safari. If iPhone ad-blocking catches on, news sites will be looking for other ways to monetize reader eyeballs.
Source : wired.com
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