Publishers Who Adopt Apple News Now Qualify for Reduced Commission on In-App Subscriptions

Thursday August 26, 2021 8:47 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple today announced a News Partner Program that will allow publishers who are committed to publishing their content through Apple News to qualify for a reduced 15% commission rate on qualifying in-app subscriptions.

In exchange for maintaining a "robust" presence on Apple News, publishers enrolled in the program will receive 85% of the revenue from readers who subscribe through the publication's own app on the App Store. By comparison, publishers currently receive 70% of revenue from readers who have been subscribed for less than one year and 85% of revenue from readers who have been subscribed for one year or longer.

Publishers may apply for the program starting today worldwide. To be eligible, publishers must maintain an Apple News channel and publish all content to that channel in the Apple News Format. Further details are available on Apple's website.

Apple will also support, fund, and collaborate with additional media literacy organizations around the world, and the company has recommitted support to three leading non-profit organizations that offer independent media literacy programs, including Common Sense Media, the News Literacy Project, and Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori.

Tag: Apple News Guide

Top Rated Comments

sw1tcher

27 months ago

Tim cook: "We treat every developer the same."

Yeah, whatever you say, Tim.

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

DoogH

Apple News is my most used app.

I really like how it doesn’t only show me news that fits my world view.

infiniteentropy

Apple News is like "fetch" ... give it up, it's not going to happen.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Specifically Apple news it doesn’t show things I’m interested in, as much as other sites.

I don't use News much, but I've found that the more you use it and the more ? and/or ? you give to news articles, the better it gets.

If something comes up you're not interested in, block the topic or news channel, and follow the topics and channels you are interested in to fine tune the news stories.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Which part of this is exclusive? It is a public program for all publishers

...who by the way aren't developing software anyway

The New York Times is an app developer.

They develop the NYT app ('https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/the-new-york-times/id284862083') but are not part of News+ ('https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/technology/new-york-times-apple-news-app.html') which means Apple gets a 30 percent cut from 1st year subscribers, but if they join News+, Apple will let the NYT keep 85 percent of subscriptions instead of 70 percent.

In other words, Apple is telling them, "Hey, if you scratch our back, we'll scratch yours."

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)