According to a new report, Apple intends to introduce its own top-rated subscription magazine service. This will be integrated into the Apple News app.
Apple, of course, bought magazine app Texture earlier in 2018. The app offers well over 200 magazines for only $9.99 per month.
Since buying Texture, the Cupertino-based company reportedly terminated the services of 20 of the app’s former employees. The ones who stayed are currently being moved to the Apple News team. An app that combines Texture and Apple News will in all likelihood be launched before this time next year.
Similar to artists on Apple Music or the App Store’s developers, the magazine subscription service will operate on a revenue share basis. Apple will take a share of the money being generated, while publishers will also get their cut. Precisely how much each one of them will get is unknown at this stage.
Apple obviously hopes that, like Apple Music (which came into existence after the company bought Beats) the new magazine outlet will help boost its services division. Last year sales for this division went up by 23% to $30bn – but Apple wants to push it to $50bn/year over the next three years.
Despite the fact that Apple News hasn’t quite set new standards in the news app market, the company has for a while been interested in publishing magazines. When the iPad first appeared on the scene eight years ago, one of the apps Steve Jobs was reportedly particularly excited about was The Daily, a subscription-based newspaper app that was exclusive to the iPad. The app, unfortunately, enjoyed a very short lifespan.
Whether Apple can duplicate the success it had with Apple music and its 40 million users remains to be seen. Finding 40 million people who are prepared to pay for reading magazines might prove to be harder than it expects.