Apple Rises On The Frustration Of Publishers On Apple News.
For several months Apple is seeking participation from publishers in its premium program. Apple initiated this project a year ago aiming to create audio files of the stories published on its News+ platform. Apple thinks that this will be a great leap in the future of news reading. Nearly four separate publishers have listened to this approach now.
Apple declared that it’s going to handle the production costs. In a statement, Apple said that they will compensate the publishers of audio content in the same way they compensate their Apple News+ publishers for their written content. According to sources Apple pays around 50 % of the revenue amount to publishers which users spend in the duration of 30-days on its Apple News+ platform.
With its approach of audio content on Apple News+ Apple fancied to stay trending in the innovation market. The reason for the adoption of this format is a profound influence by other service providers. Many private websites started publishing podcasts(a digital audio file). It’s the new trend taking over! Therefore, you can imagine why Apple wants it so severely.
This decision received miscellaneous reviews from publishers.
Associates from publishers, who are in conversation with Apple for this project stated that Apple seeks permission to initially choose files for conversion. Most likely, this will be done as per the user’s interest.
They further stated that publishers are in conversation to handle any other obstruction that may subvert the deal. One of the issues which arise relates to the freelancer writers’ articles. Freelance writers compose many articles written in Apple News+. These articles forbid third-party re-usage to users similar to Apple.
Apple is making a huge effort to make this deal happen. Apple wants to lift maximum responsibility to make sure other participants don’t strive, still, Apple faces criticism on several fronts.
Many worry about the compensation, and some just think that it’s not feasible; as listening to audio takes more time than reading an article.
In a statement, an associate from the publication involved in the conversation with Apple stated, he heard Apple stating the following:
“All the publishers who were part of Texture are going to get into an arms race.”
No declaration for the release of the audio files can be provided.
Even Apple has declined to release any official statements regarding this!
It may not be the best time for Apple to fulfill the desire of releasing audio stories for its Apple News+. Many publishers have registered dissatisfaction regarding the amount of money they make using Apple News. In a quarterly earnings call, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple announced that they have an increase in their active monthly user. The number has increased to 125 million, which is indeed a wonderful number of audiences. Last year the number of users registered was 90 million. By these reports, you can calculate the tremendous growth in the user base of Apple News+.
With a huge increase in audience, publishers should be getting 50% share of users’ monthly expenses, still, why are publishers showing disappointment with Apple regarding money?
The answer to this could be the Last official announcement made by Apple regarding its users of Apple News, which was 48 hours after the product was launched. In this announcement, Apple stated that they have achieved 200,000 subscriptions in just 48 hours. According to a publisher, they just receive $20,000/month, they affirmed this while talking to a channel.
Several publishers shared similar experiences, describing the payment process of Apple News as “horrendous.”
As per the Alliance for Audited Media, publishers can count every download of their issue as a circulation number. The reason for this implies due to the media and ads which remain the same in both the versions.
Increasing speculations, Bloomberg in February reported, Liz Schimel, who was leading the News platform of apple resigned from his job without even completing a year with the organization.
No doubt that the demand for audio formatted content is increasing. Today, SpokenLayer is a star name in producing and distributing audio contents. They stated that their client base has gone wide in just four years. Before, the numbers neared Zero and now they are distributing Audio content over 12 distinct platforms.
Giant techs like Amazon, Google, and Spotify are already leading the audio content game in diverse genres. In some cases, publishers are getting funds directly from Google for composing their audio content.