Apple News has launched a new ‘News Partner Program’ for subscriptions news publications that provide the content to the service in Apple News Format (ANF). Under the new program, Apple’s media partners who optimize the majority of their content in ANF will be offered a reduced 15% commission rate for in-app purchase subscriptions. The company describes ANF as:
ANF enables an exceptional reading experience on Apple News and unlocks the full benefit of the platform for publishers, and empowers publishers to create brand-forward stories, immersive issues, and audio stories, with designs that scale seamlessly across Apple devices. ANF also supports advertising, and publishers keep 100 percent of the revenue from advertising they sell within Apple News.
In addition, the service has also announced that the new program will support, fund, and collaborate with leading organizations worldwide for “media literacy and diversity in news coverage and newsrooms.” Specific projects will be announced later.
Eligibility criteria for Apple News ‘News Partner Program’
- The program is available to members of the Apple Developer Program, worldwide.
- Participants in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom must publish in ANF, and participants outside these regions must share via an RSS feed.
- The main objective of the publisher is to offer professionally authored original content.
- Publishers’ apps must be available on App Store with auto-renewable subscriptions via Apple’s in-app purchase system.
- Participating publishers must consent to a “separate addendum to the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.”
Last year, Apple reduced its standard 30% commission rate by half to support small developers, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The new 15% commission rate for in-app purchases applied to developers who earned equal to or less than $1 million annually. Developers over that income threshold pay a 30% commission rate for in-app purchases, subscriptions, and paid apps via App Store. And now the company has extended that to Apple News publishers are well.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services said:
“Providing Apple News customers with access to trusted information from our publishing partners has been our priority from day one. For more than a decade, Apple has offered our customers many ways to access and enjoy news content across our products and services. We have hundreds of news apps from dozens of countries around the world available in the App Store, and created Apple News Format to offer publishers a tool to showcase their content and provide a great experience for millions of Apple News users.”
