Apple Launches Audio Stories in Apple News, Adds Local News in Five Regions

As part of the iOS 13.6 and macOS 10.15.6 updates, Apple is introducing new features for Apple News and its Apple News+ subscription service, including audio stories.

applenewsaudio
Audio stories include audio versions of the best stories from ‌Apple News‌, a daily audio news briefing created by ‌Apple News‌ editors, and curated local news collections launching in five cities and regions.

‌Apple News‌ editors plan to release about 20 audio stories per week across a wide range of interests, with the stories narrated by professional voice actors. Apple says we can expect pieces from Esquire, Essence, Fast Company, GQ, New York magazine, Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, and newspapers that include The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

‌Apple News‌ audio stories are a feature limited to ‌Apple News‌+ subscribers in the United States, but the daily audio news briefing, called ‌Apple News‌ Today, is free for all ‌Apple News‌ users.

‌Apple News‌ Today will feature highlights of some of the "most fascinating stories in the news" and will be available Monday through Friday in the ‌Apple News‌ app in the United States and in Apple Podcasts.

Along with audio stories, Apple is adding new local and regional news outlets for readers, including The Charlotte Observer, the Miami Herald, and The News & Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina, plus a curated local news experience available in the Bay Area, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.

The curated news feature will include coverage of topics that are important to local communities like dining and restaurants, weather, news and politics, and more.

"Apple News showcases so much great journalism, and we're excited to help bring it to life in new ways with Apple News+ audio stories and a new daily news show, Apple News Today," said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News. "We also greatly value our many local news partners -- our new local news feature highlights their work for readers who live, and are interested, in those communities."

The new ‌Apple News‌ features are available today as part of the free iOS 13.6 update. Audio stories and ‌Apple News‌ Today can be accessed through the new "Audio" tab in the ‌Apple News‌ app. ‌Apple News‌ is free, while ‌Apple News‌+ costs $9.99 per month after a one-month free trial. Just today, Best Buy began offering a four month free trial for those who are new subscribers and a three month free trial for those who subscribed before.

Related Forum: iOS 13

Popular Stories

M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Announces New 14-Inch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:07 am PDT by
Apple today updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, which is also available in updated iPad Pro and Vision Pro models. In addition, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro can now be configured with up to 4TB of storage on Apple's online store, whereas the previous model maxed out at 2TB. However, the maximum amount of unified RAM available for this model remains 32GB. Like...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

Apple Debuts New iPad Pro With M5 Chip, Faster Charging, and More

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple today announced the next-generation iPad Pro, featuring the custom-designed M5, C1X, and N1 chips. The M5 chip has up to a 10-core CPU, with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It features a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerator in each core, allowing the new iPad Pro to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance than the previous model, and a third-generation ray-tracing ...
apple oct 2024 mac tease

Apple Expected to Announce These Two to Three Products 'This Week'

Sunday October 12, 2025 7:05 am PDT by
Apple plans to announce new products "this week," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple's "Mac Your Calendars" teaser last October In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the products set to be updated this week include the iPad Pro, Vision Pro, and "likely" the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, with all three likely to receive a spec bump with Apple's next-generation M5 chip. Gurman...
maxresdefault

Here's Everything Apple Announced Today

Wednesday October 15, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We didn't get a second fall event this year, but Apple did unveil updated products with a series of press releases that went out today. The M5 chip made an appearance in new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up our coverage and highlighted the main feature changes for each device below. MacBook Pro M5...
joz macbook tease

Apple Teases Upcoming M5 MacBook Pro Launch: 'Something Powerful is Coming'

Tuesday October 14, 2025 11:59 am PDT by
Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak today teased the launch of an upcoming product, saying "something powerful is coming" on social media. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. A short animation accompanying Joswiak's teaser reveals a brief glimpse of a MacBook Pro along with the words "coming soon." The shape of the MacBook Pro is a V, which is the Roman numeral...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2: Everything We Know So Far

Tuesday October 14, 2025 8:43 am PDT by
Apple's AirPods Max have now been available for almost five years, so what do we know about the second-generation version? According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new AirPods Max will be lighter than the current ones, but exactly how much is as yet known. The current AirPods Max weigh 0.85 pounds (386.2 grams), excluding the charging case, making it one of the heavier...
Vision Pro M5 Announcement

Apple Updates Vision Pro With M5 Chip, Dual Knit Band, and 120Hz Support

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:14 am PDT by
Apple today updated the Vision Pro headset with its next-generation M5 chip for faster performance, and a more comfortable Dual Knit Band. The M5 chip has a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine, and we have confirmed the Vision Pro still has 16GB of RAM. With the M5 chip, the Vision Pro offers faster performance and longer battery life compared...
macbook pro blue

Apple's M5 MacBook Pro Imminent: What to Expect

Tuesday October 14, 2025 4:35 pm PDT by
Apple is going to launch a new version of the MacBook Pro as soon as tomorrow, so we thought we'd go over what to expect from Apple's upcoming Mac. M5 Chip The MacBook Pro will be one of the first new devices to use the next-generation M5 chip, which will replace the M4 chip. The M5 is built on TSMC's more advanced 3-nanometer process, and it will bring speed and efficiency improvements. ...
MacBook Pro M5 Screen

New MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:59 am PDT by
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip does not include a charger in the box in European countries, including the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and others, according to Apple's online store. In the U.S. and all other countries outside of Europe, the new MacBook Pro comes with Apple's 70W USB-C Power Adapter, but European customers miss out....
Apple TV Plus Feature 2 Magenta and Blue

Apple TV+ Being Rebranded as Apple TV

Monday October 13, 2025 8:25 am PDT by
Buried in its announcement about "F1: The Movie" making its streaming debut on December 12, Apple has also announced that Apple TV+ is being rebranded as simply Apple TV. A single line near the end of the press release states "Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity," though Apple's website has yet to be updated with any changes, so we're unsure on the details of the...

Top Rated Comments

Deliro Avatar
69 months ago

Apple News ... further left than CNN or MSNBC.
Curated news has me suspicious. I don’t need biased views serving me news. Right or left. I want facts and not articles disguised as news but are really editorial opinion pieces. Too many “reporters” today are really just spouting their opinions.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Thoradin Avatar
69 months ago
Why do they always make this stuff limited to the US?
There are News+ subscribers in the UK that would quite like access to this kind of stuff.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iksretep Avatar
69 months ago
I have a love/hate relationship with News/News+, just the same as with the new Music app. Too many "we think you'll be interested in" aka "curated" instead of serving me what I followed or downloaded ... then there are times when I click on a link someone forwards one time, and throw the algorithm off for the next two months I get served with something I might not want to see again. I paid for News+ for over a year and cancelled it, no matter what I did; restricted stories in Today, blocked topics, blocked sources, reset identifier, reset the app, called Apple help ... I can't seem to figure it out.

There are times when I just want to tune things out, not because I'm insensitive, but because I want to focus and relax with what really interests me and lowers my blood pressure. I was hoping for a newsstand replacement where I can have all the magazines/subjects I'm interested in in one spot ... I now would much rather subscribe to individual magazines and call it a day.

Same "rant" applies to the Music app/service, I have the developer beta and iOS13 versions. Listen Now, Browse, and Radio seem to have overlapping content many times unrelated to the music type I listen to or I'm interested in because I clicked on a link someone sent me. Seems the library portion of the app is taking a back seat ... Paying for family Music, but daily I think I might just go back to buying songs and disabling all those other sections ... well anyway just my 2c.

I know in the grand scheme of things the above is very insignificant, and is just a click/tap away from me going elsewhere ... but why did Apple separate iTunes for music, podcasts, news, apps, and now it seems they're slowly merging them back together, with "stories" being everywhere as an example.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonblatho Avatar
69 months ago
Adding a focus on local and regional news is certainly a wise choice. Where it’s married to News+, I’m way more willing to pay for that than having access to hundreds of magazines that I wouldn’t read anyway.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
now i see it Avatar
69 months ago
Podcasting reimagined. This will set News+ apart. Good idea.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Icaras Avatar
69 months ago
Love that Apple News is now on CarPlay too! This better be in the next iOS 14 build too.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)