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Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

nytimes.com

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Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#21

Post by gnicholas »

ohnope wrote: post #7

>the most recent terms that Apple is offering to publishers ask for a cut of roughly half of the subscription revenue involved in the service 50% cut? And likely no access to customer data, with content embedded in a proprietary app outside of a news paper’s control... why would publishers agree to shutting off so many avenues for future innovation and strategic independence?

There are publishers (including the Washington Post, who are not signing on) that have decided that they have to transition from getting lots of revenue from a few people (often in one geography) to getting a little revenue from lots of people (all over the world). If this is your new strategy, Apple's offering might make sense.

Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#23

Post by GeekyBear »

It's worth noting that Apple did not create the "50% revenue share" business model behind the Texture app they bought.

The big names in magazine publishing who created Texture did.

>New York, NY, December 8, 2009 – Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc. today jointly announced that they have entered into an independent venture to develop open standards for a new digital storefront and related technology that will allow consumers to enjoy their favorite media content on portable digital devices.

http://allthingsd.com/20091208/nows-the-time-finally-publish...

As for their revenue model.

>That service, which was eventually called Texture, paid out 10 percent of its monthly revenue to its owner-operators, who divvied it up based on the usage their titles generated. And publishers who sold their stuff through the service but didn’t own a piece of Texture captured 50 percent of the revenue, also cut up by usage.

https://www.recode.net/2019/2/13/18224013/apple-news-publish...

Apparently the magazine industry and the newspaper industry have different ideas on what a equitable revenue share might be.

Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#25

Post by peteretep »

steve19 wrote: post #5
tptacek wrote: post #3

Broken record: online newspaper subscriptions are super cheap and are remarkably useful; when you can click around a newspaper site without popups, it starts to makes sense to use them as your news portal, which quickly weans you off lower-quality free sites like CNN. Like the people that get the sleep apnea devices and won't shut up about how much better their life is, I'm constantly (and noisily) surprised by how s…

I think the problem is that some sites are charging for low quality click bait journalism. I am not going to pay for NYT or WP or the many magazines I used to subscribe to and dont anymore. I will pay for WsJ, The Economist and Bloomberg. Its when they want both seo/viral traffic AND my subscription dollars that annoys me.

> The Economist

> Its when they want both seo/viral traffic AND my subscription dollars that annoys me.

Have you followed TE on Facebook or Twitter? There’s plenty of clickbait there, although they do now hive some of it off to 1843 Magazine and Espresso

Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#26

Post by Despegar »

untog wrote: post #6

I'm confused why WSJ, of all publications, is jumping on board here. A look at their subscription page shows me that the cheapest option is $15 a month. This Apple News subscription product is going to be $10 a month and Apple is taking 50% of that. I get the argument that Apple News will expose you to a much larger audience, but that level of revenue cut is... significant. Why wouldn't I cancel my WSJ subscription a…

There could be lots of deals. Maybe the 50% cut drops after they get to 20 million subscribers. Maybe the WSJ and the magazines will get a lower rate for being an initial partner compared to the NYT or WaPo who might want to come on later if Apple News gets really big. The fact that WSJ isn't going to have any competition from the other big national newspapers means they'll likely capture most of the reads.

Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#27

Post by Alex3917 »

untog wrote: post #6

I'm confused why WSJ, of all publications, is jumping on board here. A look at their subscription page shows me that the cheapest option is $15 a month. This Apple News subscription product is going to be $10 a month and Apple is taking 50% of that. I get the argument that Apple News will expose you to a much larger audience, but that level of revenue cut is... significant. Why wouldn't I cancel my WSJ subscription a…

> there's no way the cost of distributing an article is anywhere near the same as the cost of making it

IIRC actual "investigative journalism" is less than 2% of the NYT's budget. Even though the cut is very high, most media companies may be coming out ahead based on where they're currently spending their budget.

Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#28

Post by m0zg »

untog wrote: post #6

I'm confused why WSJ, of all publications, is jumping on board here. A look at their subscription page shows me that the cheapest option is $15 a month. This Apple News subscription product is going to be $10 a month and Apple is taking 50% of that. I get the argument that Apple News will expose you to a much larger audience, but that level of revenue cut is... significant. Why wouldn't I cancel my WSJ subscription a…

Probably because they're getting access to double-filtered (first by the price of the iPhone, then by the price of their subscription), creme de la creme audience to which they could show a ton of targeted ads?

Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#29

Post by steven2012 »

> Publishers are also concerned that they won’t have access to important data about the consumers — credit cards, email addresses and other subscriber information — as part of the deal.

Why are credit card numbers important information? All they would know is what the credit card is, but it's not like they can sell the credit card or use that number to get more purchases, etc, from that number, can they?

Re: Apple News Service Said to Feature WSJ for $10 a month, Without NYT or WP

#30

Post by pier25 »

untog wrote: post #6

I'm confused why WSJ, of all publications, is jumping on board here. A look at their subscription page shows me that the cheapest option is $15 a month. This Apple News subscription product is going to be $10 a month and Apple is taking 50% of that. I get the argument that Apple News will expose you to a much larger audience, but that level of revenue cut is... significant. Why wouldn't I cancel my WSJ subscription a…

Maybe you get more content when subscribed directly to WSJ?
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