Apple News

Apple News is a news aggregator app developed by Apple Inc., for its iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS operating systems. The iOS version was launched with the release of iOS 9. It is the successor to the Newsstand app included in previous versions of iOS. Users can read news articles with it, based on publishers, websites and topics they select, such as technology or politics.[5]

For the newspapers from Next Media, see Apple Daily and Apple Daily (Taiwan).
Apple News
Developer(s)Apple Inc.
Initial releaseSeptember 16, 2015 (2015-09-16)
Stable release(s)
iOS/iPadOS/watchOS4.0.7 / September 30, 2019 (2019-09-30)[1]
macOS8.3 / March 27, 2023 (2023-03-27)
Operating system
PredecessorNewsstand
Available in2 languages[3]
List of languages
English, French[4]
TypeNews aggregator
LicenseProprietary software
Websiteapple.com/news

Overview

The Apple News app works by pulling in news stories from the web through various syndication feeds (Atom and RSS)[6] or from news publishing partners through the JSON descriptive Apple News Format.[7] Any news publisher can submit their content for inclusion in Apple News. Stories added through Safari will be displayed via the in-app web browser included with the app.

News is fetched from publisher's websites through the AppleBot web crawler bot.[8] The bot fetches feeds, as well as web pages and images for the Apple News service. It has received criticism for being poorly behaved and not being fault tolerant; resulting in high loads on websites.[9]

The Apple News version distributed with iOS 9 made it hard to differentiate traffic originating from within the app from traffic originating from other apps. Apple News version 2, introduced in iOS 10, began identifying itself using its own User-Agent string, making it possible to measure the reach of Apple News using web analytics solutions.[10] Traffic analytics was previously only available to paying publisher partners through iAds.

History

Apple News was announced at Apple's WWDC 2015 developer conference. It was released alongside the iOS 9 release on September 16, 2015, for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. At launch, the app was only available to users in the United States, but within a month had become available to users in Australia and the United Kingdom.[11]

It was reported in 2014 that Apple Inc. had acquired the Netherlands-based digital magazine company Prss, developers of an application that simplified the creation of iPad-compatible magazines using a WYSIWYG editor that didn't require any knowledge of code.[12] Prss was seen as a magazine version of iBooks Author. The idea for Prss came after entrepreneur Michel Elings and longtime travel writer and photographer Jochem Wijnands designed their own iPad publication called TRVL. The Prss invention became what is now 'Apple News.'[13]

On June 13, 2016, during the keynote address at WWDC 2016, it was revealed that with the forthcoming iOS 10 update the News app would undergo new icon and app redesigns along with an improved For You section organized by topics. Furthermore, it was announced that there would be support for paid subscriptions for certain news sources and publishers as well as an opt-in system for breaking news notifications and email on top news stories.

On June 4, 2018, during the WWDC 2018 keynote address, Apple announced that the Apple News app would be ported to macOS and be available to users in Australia, United Kingdom, and United States starting in macOS 10.14.[14] The app is installed by default in every region but is not made visible to users outside those three regions. Users can still open it using various workarounds.[14]

In February 2019, Digiday reported that publishers are frustrated over the platform's lack of revenue,[15] despite seeing steady growth in audience over the past year.

On March 25, 2019, iOS 12.2 was released with the updated News app that introduced subscriptions through Apple's "Apple News+" service, which was announced on the same day.[16] The icon for Apple News also changed, putting the N in the icon front and center with a slightly changed design.[17] The same month, Apple introduced support for the News app in Canada, including the News+ subscription service.[18]

In July 2020, Apple added an Audio tab for US News+ subscribers, as well as support listening to audio news stories in CarPlay.[19] In March 2023, Apple introduced a dedicated Sports tab to the app with the release of iOS 16.4, providing stories and coverage for a user's favourite teams.[20]

Apple News+

On March 25, 2019, Apple announced Apple News+, a subscription-based service allowing access to content from over 300 magazines, as well as selected newspapers.[21] The service was preceded by the digital media subscription app Texture, which Apple acquired in 2018.[22]

The Wall Street Journal, one of the newspapers available through Apple News+, will reconfigure its services to offer more articles for casual readers. It will not actively display business-intensive articles through the Apple platform, though they will still be available by searching through a three-day archive.[23]

On July 15, 2020, Apple announced the addition of audio stories in Apple News+, which allows subscribers to listen to narrated versions of articles in a similar fashion to a podcast under a new Audio tab.[19]

On September 15, 2020, Apple announced that Apple News+ would be bundled in the Premier package of Apple One alongside iCloud, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and Apple Fitness+.[24]

Media bias rating

A 2023 analysis by AllSides Media (founded by a Republican using methodology developed by a conservative academic) found Apple News to have a "lean left" bias. The findings noted, "Overall, 53% of news articles that appeared on Apple News were from sources AllSides rates as Lean Left or Left. Just 1% were from the right, and 25% were from the Center."[25]

The analysis found that Apple News shows "far more articles" on the left and center than those on the right.[26]

See also

References
  1. "Apple News". App Store Preview. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  2. "Apple News on the App Store". App Store. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  3. "Apple News". App Store Preview. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  4. "Apple News expanding to Canada with upcoming iOS 12.2 update". 9to5Mac. January 24, 2019.
  5. "Apple unveils News app, with New York Times, ESPN and other big publishers on board - GeekWire". GeekWire. June 8, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  6. "RSS Content". Apple News Publisher. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  7. "Apple News Format workflow". Apple News Publisher. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  8. "About Applebot". Apple Support. Archived from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  9. "Attack of the AppleNewsBot". Slight Future. July 5, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
  10. "Apple News app getting its own User-Agent for analytics in iOS 10". Slight Future. July 13, 2016. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  11. "Apple Releases iOS 9.1 With New Emoji, Live Photos Improvements". Mac Rumours. October 21, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  12. Etherington, Darrell. "PRSS Digital Magazine Platform Acquired By Apple". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
  13. "Apple Acquired Prss in 2014 and today their Invention that became 'Apple News' was Published by USPTO". Patently Apple. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
  14. ""Getting the Apple News app for macOS in unsupported regions". Ctrl blog. June 5, 2018. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  15. Max Willens (February 25, 2019). "'Hard to back out': Publishers grow frustrated by the lack of revenue from Apple News".
  16. "You Need to Update to iOS 12.2 Right Now". Gizmodo. March 26, 2019. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  17. "Apple introduces new Apple News app icon with iOS 12.2 beta 4". The Apple Post. March 5, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  18. "About iOS 12 Updates". Apple Support. Archived from the original on May 15, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2020. Apple News is now available in Canada, with a free experience that includes handpicked Top Stories, a personalized Today feed, and support for both English and French
  19. "Apple News launches new audio features, expands local news offerings for readers". Apple Newsroom. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  20. "Apple News App Gains Sports Tab in First iOS 16.5 Beta". MacRumors. March 28, 2023. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
  21. Goode, Lauren (March 25, 2019). "Apple Launches Apple News+ Paid Subscription Service". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  22. Balakrishnan, Anita (March 12, 2018). "Apple buys Texture, a digital magazine subscription service". CNBC. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  23. Lee, Edmund (April 2, 2019). "Media Companies Take a Big Gamble on Apple". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
  24. Alexander, Julia (September 15, 2020). "Apple confirms Apple One subscription bundle, bringing together Music, TV Plus, Arcade, and more". The Verge. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  25. "How Apple News Shows Its Bias". AllSides. August 29, 2023. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
  26. "Apple News Bias Analysis 2023" (PDF). AllSides Media. June–July 2023.
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