We Need to Seriously Consider the Value of Apple News

Today, Apple announced Apple News, a competitor to Flipboard (often preinstalled on Samsung Galaxy Android devices).

It’s detrimental news for Flipboard, has validated Facebook’s foray into Instant Articles, and gives publishers yet another glimmer of hope that something may stem the bleeding.

For the preapproved list of content sources, it is certainly an enticing offer. Similar to Instant Articles, Publications keep 100% of the ad revenues. And since Apple News will be pre=installed on every iOS device, it will inevitably decimate the value of Flipboard and its ilk.

If you’re a publisher, and you are placing money on the news reader to succeed, it sure as hell should be Apple’s.

And that should be scary as hell.

We all know Apple is a famously controlling company. And yes, while Tim Cook is all against collecting data in the name of privacy, Apple is no saint. It has agreed to pay $450 million in an ebook price fixing suit. It also has been no fan of the press in any form in the past. And it’s used its market dominance in a number of other ways to intimidate those who do not toe the line.

Yet major news outlets have joined in on Apple News, probably quite gleeful they were in an Apple slide of some sort. But did they read the fine print?

Since Apple already has (assumedly) vetted which newspapers and content sources it will allow to be displayed in Apple News (a problem in and of itself since users can’t add their own sources), why does it feel the need to include this line? What constitute a post as offensive, or worse, problematic? For instance, I find this article recently published on Medium as being hideously transphobic and offensive, but does it mean it should be removed? Probably not.

As far as we know, Apple News is just as arbitrary with its news guidelines as it is with its App Store guidelines.

This puts Apple in a position of influence that makes the hairs on the back of my neck raise, and it’s a position I wish publishers were much more wary of and readers knew much more about.

Apple has managed to gate the news on one of the most popular mobile platforms in the world. In one fell swoop, Apple will have the ability to control what iOS users read. And while Apple’s touch of gold looks light today, I almost guarantee we will feel their heavy hand tomorrow.

If you liked this article, consider subscribing to my weekly newsletter and turning the recommend button from white to green.