Apple To Give Everyone What They Want At March 25 Event - News Subscriptions

Hey! Know how I've been all excited over in the iOS Public Beta posts about new hardware coming soon from Apple, possibly at a March event to coincide with the launch of iOS 12.2?

Yeah, about that…

Looks like I should have, instead, been focused on the part where Apple News was expanding to include Canada. Buzzfeed is reporting an as-yet-unannounced March 25 event that will focus on Apple services rather than hardware. Backing this is the Wall Street Journal's further reporting that publishers are balking at the profit share proposed by Apple for a subscription news service (a frankly ludicrous 50% share).

Old News?

Frankly, this has been an announcement over a year in the making. Apple bought digital magazine service Texture around this time last year, leading a few outlets to predict that the Cupertino tech giant was going to rebrand and relaunch the service "soon."

Fast forward a year and "soon" is "now." Tim Cook is facing a tech landscape that sees consumers less willing to plunk down thousands for the latest iPhone, especially when the hardware is making small iterative changes rather than generational leaps from year to year ("Oh look! It's slightly bigger!").

If You Build It, Will They Come?

Services is a smart way to try and get more money out of a captive iOS-using audience, whether or not they're upgrading their devices annually. Apple Music and iCloud storage subscriptions siphon off a little bit of my money each month, to the point where it's just a hand-waved line item in YNAB.

But will we pay for news?

Paywalls and paid subscriptions to digital magazines have been around for a long time. But free news has taken ahold of that business model and shaken it like a dog with his favorite toy.

When I can head to Google, type in a keyword, and drink from the firehose or pop into the Google or Apple News app to see a curated feed from my favorite sources, why would I want to pay $10 more per month just to have access to additional stories?

The trick is sourcing. If Apple can get the aforementioned paywall and digital subscription magazines onboard with their business model, allowing users to peruse under one umbrella content that usually requires multiple paid subscriptions, then they'll have a compelling product. After all, when the news is free, you have to keep a close eye on the veracity of every story. With paid content, the expectation is that these are reliable sources (hence, why you're willing to pay).

Video Killed the Magazine Star

But what about Apple TV? Long rumored, never materialized, Apple's television subscription service could be a part of the March 25 event as well. Rumors are that Apple is planning an April launch for its curated video streaming service. They've been signing contracts with production studios for a while, so this rumor is more of a "when" rather than an "if."

No matter what happens next month you can bet the Apple hardware faithful will tune in, if only to hold out hope for "one more thing."

I mean, c'mon. Can't we just get new AirPods already?

Looking for more? Check out David Phelan's in-depth analysis and expectations for the March 25 event.