Who said people no longer read magazines? According to the figures revealed in a recent report by The New York Times, more than 200,000 people subscribed to the $10 per month Apple News+ service in its first 48 hours, which is more than Texture had amassed at its peak.
The paper heard this from two sourced with knowledge of the figures.
The fact that Apple News+ offers a free one-month trial has without a doubt helped boost adoption, but so did Texture for that matter. And for those wondering—no, Texture’s subscribers have not been counted toward Apple’s subscribers.
The New York Times is one of the major newspapers that opted out of the service because it already has the digital subscription business that’s the envy of the publishing industry. The Washington Post did not join the effort either despite “intense lobbying from Apple.”
Apple has, however, managed to persuade Rupert Murdoch to offer The Wall Street Journal content through Apple News+ sans certain sections and archives older than 3 days. The Los Angeles Times is another major newspaper that participates in Apple News+.
Apple previously tried to sell digital publications through Newsstand, the now defunct stock app that was supposed to bring together all the digital magazines in one place. But Newsstand failed miserable because it was dedicated to downloading and displaying digital versions of newspapers and magazines, most of them PDFs packaged as apps.
In fact, even though Apple used to refer to Newsstand as an app, it was actually a special folder with individual apps of newspapers and magazines inside. Following the initial release in October 2011, Newsstand received its final update with the iOS 8.4.1 software update issued in August 2015 before being replaced altogether by iOS 9’s News app the following year.
That didn’t discourage Apple from bringing curated quality journalism to its user base. To help with that, the company acquired Texture in 2018 for an undisclosed sum.
As you may have heard, Texture provided readers with an all-you-can-eat access to some 200 publications with a single monthly subscription. Apple’s service includes more than 300 titles including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time, The Atlantic and People.
On top of that, your Apple News+ subscription includes access to publications like Airbnb Magazine, Birds & Blooms, Retro Gamer and Salt Water Sportsman, as well as premium online publications such as theSkimm, The Highlight by Vox, New York Magazine’s sites Vulture, The Cut and Grub Street, and Extra Crunch from Verizon Media’s TechCrunch.
Apple News+ is available in the US for ten bucks per month and in Canada for $13 per month. It requires an iPhone or iPad with iOS 12.2+ or a Mac running macOS 10.14.4 or higher.
Thanks to Family Sharing, up to six family members can share one Apple News+ subscription. The service will be available in the United Kingdom and Australia later this year.
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