Apple Directly Selling Apple News Ads
Apple has started selling its own advertising inventory for Apple News, two sources familiar with the effort told Axios. It’s pitching new ad units that it hopes will maximize revenue for itself and its publishing partners.
[…]
Beginning next year, Apple will sell premium sponsorships of editorially curated content for relevant events, such as the Met Gala, the U.S. Open, and more.
In addition to premium sponsorships, the Apple News team is also pitching banner placements and video ads across 17 different formats, including carousel ads that feature different products.
Advertisers will also be able to sponsor specific feeds within Apple News, should they wish to contextually align with certain topics.
[…]
While the company doesn’t break out its advertising revenue from its broader services revenue, analysts estimate advertising makes up roughly 10% of that business.
Via John Gruber:
Apple News+ is a really good product. Scanning its main Today tab in the morning has become my modern-day equivalent of scanning the front page of a printed newspaper — a way to get a sense of what’s going on in world news. There’s a level of editorial curation and presentation in Apple News that I don’t think has a peer. Apple News itself doesn’t publish or report anything, but there’s clearly a talented, level-headed editorial team that is picking and choosing the most important and most interesting (which are often very different things) stories from a wide variety of sources.
This is the highest praise I’ve ever seen for Apple News. Personally, I really dislike the app’s interface, so I wouldn’t use it in this way even if I liked the selection of stories. I still accidentally end up in Apple News from time to time after clicking a link. I wish there were a way to stop that. I’m offended that it doesn’t have a built-in keyboard shortcut to open the story in your browser and that the menu command says Open in Safari even if you’ve chosen a different default browser. (The Default web browser setting has moved over time and is now in System Settings but cannot be found by searching for “browser.”)
I don’t look to Apple News for anything related to tech. […] But for national, world, and general interest news, Apple News is really good. I don’t know what it’s like without a News+ subscription, but with one, it’s truly excellent.
[…]
But, my god, the ads suck — low-rent and highly repetitive.
I really think Apple should get out of the ads business, starting with the App Store. I find it corrupting, ugly, distasteful, and most of all an anti-premium experience.
First: I agree with @gruber that “The economics for ad-free news just don’t work, and never have.”
Second: Apple at least claims to operate with one bottom line where units don’t carry their own profit and loss. So I find the first claim incongruous with that.
Previously:
- Taboola + Apple News
- Apple News You Can’t Use
- Ads in the Windows 11 Start Menu and in iOS
- Apple Is Building a Demand-side Platform
- Apple Business Model: A Naive Nostalgic Look
- Funneling Into Apple News+
- The Paywalled Garden: iOS Is Adware
- StopTheNews 1.0
Update (2024-11-27): Nick Heer:
The Google document is speculative and external to Apple, so it does not represent Apple’s actual strategy. This is what Google, an advertising company, thinks Apple could do if it wanted to really commit to selling ads. Does losing its Google revenue share tip Apple’s hand? I sure hope not, but I am not the person trying to figure out whether to take a massive financial hit for users’ trust and enjoyment. If Apple has good taste, I hope it will make the right call.
Previously:
5 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
I had to finally unfollow Gruber when it became clear he's only going to stick to the party line. He's either deliberately being overly generous, or we're looking at two different apps. "A talented, level-headed editorial team" I literally LOL'd. It's just the same junk you can get on any tabloid for free. Paying for it just makes the few non-junk articles viewable, and all of those are either from Reuters, AP, or WSJ.
There's no reason for the News app to exist except for Apple to compete with Google for ads.
@Bart Correct.
I still get the headlines by email (never did unsubscribe). It's the exact same corporate tripe it's always been.
Use RSS. You're in control and you can follow quality publications. You're responsible for your own news diet, so try to challenge yourself. But it's overwhelmingly superior.
And, yes, there's Google News, if you want to play it safe, and arguably, much more enjoyably.
I don't own any iOS devices (and I tend to avoid the Mac App Store), and honestly the biggest shock I keep getting is when I see the App Store search ads. That they are willing to put #1 placement in their baby that they like to crow about as being so "safe" to whoever bids on the ad is beyond my cynical low expectations.
Bit weird seeing Apple fully becoming a company that sells ads. How long before there's an ad supported tier of Apple TV+?
Apple becoming an add selling company was inevitable. Eventually they would need to resort to that in the chase of ever growing profits, especially as their over sources of revenue begin to flatten out or decline. (Especially as their products get worse.)
It's too bad they sold us on being the one privacy oriented tech company. Because now they have all of our data, and they can sell it to whoever they want. And they will, if they haven't already.
