Apple streaming event: New News+ service asks people to pay for magazines, premium articles and websites
Company discussed the importance of journalism as it brings new services to iPhones and iPads
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple has unveiled a complete update to its news offering, known as News+, which allows people to pay to subscribe to magazines as well as newspapers.
The company suggested that the new service is the best way of reading magazines online, as well as offering a way for news organisations to sell premium subscriptions.
People will pay just $9.99 per month and get access to all of the magazines and news organisations available through the app. Subscribing to the various outlets included in the service would cost over $8,000 per month, it said.
It said that more than 300 magazines will be available through News+, with magazines including National Geographic and Rolling Stone featured during the unveiling in California. It also said newspapers including the LA Times and Wall Street Journal would be part of the offering.
But rumours in the lead-up to the announcement suggested that the company is paying only a limited amount of revenues to the magazines featured, leading some organisations to pull out of discussions. Apple did not give any details on how the publishers involved in the deal would be paid.
Apple said the new service built on the success of Apple News, which was first introduced in 2015 as a way of aggregating news, and has made its way to all of Apple's operating systems and platforms. Until now, that has only supported free articles, with news organisations being paid for the advertising shown when people read their articles.
Apple News is available today – in a software update for iOS and Mac OS – and the first month is free, Apple said.
It is available in the US and Canada, it said, and will come to Australia and the UK later this year. Canada has not had access to Apple News at all, but will get both the paid-for and free tiers straight away.
Apple also said customers would be able to subscribe through News+ and give free subscriptions to people in their family.
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