Apple Still Doesn’t Get the News-Subscription Business
To appeal to users, the latest service needs to give access to major publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The next big thing?
Photographer: Noah Berger/AFP/Getty Images
Apple’s News+ service, unveiled Monday, makes a a grab for the news junkie’s Holy Grail: a universal subscription to get behind all paywalls, the Spotify (OK, OK, the Apple Music) of journalism. So far, Apple doesn’t have it right. That would take a much more creative effort than the company may be capable of achieving.
Compared with creating a universal subscription for news, Spotify was a walk in the park. Music publishers and independent artists weren’t in the business of selling subscriptions to start with: They understood getting paid per album or per song. Consumers, for their part, were only too happy to have one app serve all their listening needs. Neither is true for the news industry.