Apple introduces News Partner Program, boosts media literacy

Apple has launched a scheme to boost the business potential of Apple News

Apple has introduced the News Partner Program, designed for subscription news publications that provide their content to Apple News in Apple News Format. It has also announced plans to continue work to boost media literacy.

Making the new news business

Apple says the program aims to both keen News users provided with access to trusted news and information, while also supporting publishers’ financial stability and advancing efforts to further media literacy and diversity in news coverage and newsrooms.

The Apple News Format (ANF) is designed to be a nice clear read on the platform, but also unlocks the full benefit of Apple News for publishers, empowering them 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 (Italics mine).

To support publishers who optimise more of their content in ANF, Apple News is offering a commission rate of 15 percent on qualifying in-app purchase subscriptions from day one.

(I can’t help but feel like a 15% rate is becoming more visible across the company’s platforms).

What Apple said

“Providing Apple News customers with access to trusted information from our publishing partners has been our priority from day one,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services.

“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.”

Publishers may apply for the News Partner Program beginning today.

Eligibility and Requirements

• Participants must maintain a robust Apple News channel in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and publish all content to that channel in ANF.
• For publishers based outside of these regions and who do not publish in ANF, they must share content via an RSS feed as permitted by their rights.
• The primary function of a publisher app must be to deliver original, professionally authored news content.
• Publishers’ apps must be available on the App Store and allow users to purchase auto-renewable subscriptions through Apple’s in-app purchase system.
• Publishers must agree to a separate addendum to the Apple Developer Program License Agreement.
• The News Publisher Program is available to Apple Developer Program members globally.

Publishers can learn more about and apply for the News Partner Program here.

Toward media literacy

Apple is also announcing its continued support for three leading non-profits offering independent media literacy programs: Common Sense Media, the News Literacy Project, and Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori. Apple has supported these organisations for two years in an attempt to empower young people with critical thinking skills.

“Our mission is to help young people develop critical thinking skills by comparing different sources of quality information,” said Andrea Ceccherini, founder and CEO of Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori when Apple first supported the organization in 2019.

“At a time when fake news is spreading, we cannot give in to the idea that third-party fact checking services are the only way to assess the reliability of news sources. We can exercise our own minds, and be masters of our own destiny. Our ambition is to help form more citizens, increasingly opening our society to a culture of civilised debate and confrontation, which is the basis of every healthy democracy.”

The News Partner Program will support, fund, and collaborate with additional leading organisations globally that educate news consumers on media literacy and further efforts to diversify news coverage and newsrooms.

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