Apple Is Talking To Big Newspapers Close Joining Its Subscription Service

Well this would larn the attending of Google together with Facebook.

From recode, Sept. 7:

Last March, Apple bought Texture, a digital mag service. Now it wants the New York Times, the Washington Post together with the Wall Street Journal to bring together up.

Earlier this year, Apple got into the mag trace of piece of occupation organisation past times buying a digital mag distributor. Now it wants to add together daily word to the mix.

Apple has been talking to approximately of the biggest newspapers inwards the U.S.A. almost adding their stories to Texture, the mag app Apple bought inwards March. Apple executives, led past times content boss Eddy Cue, bring reached out to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal together with the Washington Post almost joining the app, according to people familiar amongst the conversations, which began this summer.

The discussions are happening equally Apple ramps upward its involvement inwards content sales together with subscription. It is putting at to the lowest degree $1 billion into a slate of TV shows it expects to offset showing side past times side year, together with many people believe Apple would similar to marketplace a supersized subscription offering that bundles music, video together with word together.

An Apple rep declined to comment.

Texture — oft described equally a Netflix or Hulu for magazines — currently lets consumers read equally many stories equally they desire from dozens of magazines for a $10 monthly subscription. It’s unclear whether Apple executives desire to add together stories from the 3 dailies into the same subscription service or marketplace the papers equally an add-on.

But no affair how Apple structures the proposal, it may hold out a difficult sell for whatever of the papers, which already bring large subscription businesses of their ain together with would hold out concerned almost cannibalizing their ain sales. 

The Washington Post sells a basic all-digital subscription for $10 a month; the Times sells its for $15 a month, together with the Journal’s base of operations toll is $37 a month. Texture pays its content providers — prior to Apple’s acquisition this spring, it had been owned past times a consortium of publishers, including Conde Nast together with Hearst — based on the utilisation their titles generate. So a paper that joined Texture would almost sure run across a much smaller payout from a Texture subscriber than 1 who signed upward straight amongst 1 of the papers....MORE