Apple is rumored to be working on an Apple News subscription service that would provide access to magazines and paywalled news content for a monthly fee, and hints of that new subscription service have been spotted in macOS Mojave 10.14.4.
Developer Steve Troughton-Smith this morning shared some screenshots of the new subscription service pulled from the latest macOS 10.14.4 beta.
The screenshots show notifications from the Apple News subscription service, which will alert subscribers when new issues of their favorite magazines are available. Similar subscription information has also already been seen in iOS 12.2, with the subscription service called "Apple News Magazines."
Apple's magazine subscription service is based on Texture, the digital magazine app that it purchased in 2018. Texture, which is still available via the App Store, provides access to over 200 popular magazines like People, The New Yorker, Time, National Geographic, Shape, Newsweek, and more, all for a $9.99 per month fee.
Unsurprisingly, it looks like Apple News' magazine service is prepared to launch on macOS too pic.twitter.com/df0oyJXvjF — Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) March 12, 2019
It's likely Apple's built-in Apple News magazine subscription service will be priced similarly, with customers able to sign up in the Apple News app and pay through standard iTunes billing.
Apple is also working on incorporating news subscription options into Apple News, however, so pricing and full details on how the service works remain unclear. Apple is likely planning to offer paywalled news and magazine access for one monthly fee, though some news sites are not on board.
There's a bunch you can discern about Apple News' magazines from what's in the OS betas: for example, the magazines are PDF-based (like most iPad magazines), and issues can be stored offline. The magazine genres are listed as pictured. Most of its code is written in Swift pic.twitter.com/Uc1gN0qygu — Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) March 12, 2019
According to rumors, while magazine publishers have agreed to Apple's subscription plans, the Cupertino company has been clashing with news publishers over the planned revenue split. Apple wants to collect 50 percent of the subscription revenue from its Apple News service, which is unappealing to paywalled sites that already collect more money from their standalone subscription options.
We'll learn more about Apple's subscription plans for its news service on March 25, which is when Apple is holding an event to unveil both the news subscription service and its upcoming streaming TV service.
