Among the four new features presented by Apple at its latest special event are the publishing platform. Apple News + It was immediately launched in the United States and consumer response appears to be reasonably positive so far.
According to data published by the New York Times, more of 200 thousand users have subscribed to the $ 10 monthly service and have a free trial month in their first 48 hours of availability. The numbers come from sources close to the subject undisclosed by the newspaper.
By way of comparison, the dying Texture service acquired by Ma last year and used as the basis for building Apple News + has never had 200,000 subscribers, even at its most popular moment. Of course, the unfair comparison, since we're talking about a service coming from a startup basically unknown against a platform widely publicized by one of the world's largest companies; Still, the numbers indicate an interesting path for Cupertino's service at this early life.
Some publishers are also excited about these first steps of Apple News +: Pamela Wasserstein, CEO of New York Media (which publishes magazines like new York, The cut and Vulture), said the platform would help publications “reach a new audience” in an environment that “looks right”.
The opinion of the publisher, however, seems to have some contrary indications, as we shall see below.
Threat to magazines?
In an article written for the Monday Note, analyst Frederic Filloux has warned publishers of a possible significant cut in revenue per reader should Apple News + consolidate itself as a viable and popular option for the US market.
Filloux's calculation is simple: Today, the magazine market generates about $ 27 billion a year, which in itself represents a drop of about 40 percent from a decade ago. That $ 27 billion turns into about $ 120 / year per reader, which is the same as what Apple News + generates per user, as the service costs $ 10 per month.
The problem is that Apple gets half of that revenue, which means that if its platform becomes a "standard" gateway to magazines, publishers will lose half of their revenue in the next few years.
The situation, of course, is not so simple and varies according to the magazines: the analyst estimates, for example, that New yorker lose 88% of your revenue if Apple News + becomes extremely popular; already WIRED, with a much more intense insertion of advertising, having a loss of only 12% that estimates that each reader spends about 15% of their time on the platform on WIRED, and 20% in New yorker.
Some publications already seem to realize that the platform may pose a problem. The absence of New York Times It's from Washington post on Apple News +, for example, has already been widely noticed, and a report recently published by Vanity fair He says it was not for lack of trying: Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, has spent much of the past few months in the offices of both newspapers, but was unsuccessful especially as Apple refused to decline. your 50% rate for both publishers.
Returning to Filloux, the analyst says that, ultimately, not Apple's blame for the possible collapse in the actual magazine market, the Apple News + may be a last breath for an increasingly red segment. Still, at least in his calculations, it will not be Ma's platform that returns the old publishers to their old times.
This, of course, we can only see over time.
via MacRumors, Cult of Mac
