Some publishers claim Apple 'playing favorites' with Apple News+
Apple News+ is apparently experiencing growing pains, as a handful of smaller publications speak out about problems with the month-old service including access to platform-specific design templates and poor communication from Apple.
Citing five publications taking part in Apple News+, Digiday reports Apple is giving unequal aid to participants of the subscription news and magazine service, with much of the company's assistance seemingly focused on larger publishers.
Perhaps most detrimental to Apple's next-generation news hub is a reported lack of support for adapting publications, both physical and digital, into the custom Apple News+ format.
According to sources, Apple in pitches leading up to the release of News+ presented a customized version of soccer magazine Eight by Eight, suggesting all publishers would be furnished with their own specialized design assets and templates.
"They basically said, We will help you out by providing templates,'" a source told Digiday.
That has not been the case.
Beyond giving input on in-house templates designed by larger outlets, Apple has not provided its own solution for publications to insert into their respective workflows. Instead, the tech giant is outsourcing template design work to outside vendors, a strategy that has yielded mixed results, the report said.
Publishers of physical magazines who opted out of custom templates, or simply could not afford to roll their own tools, are left to rely on "buggy" conversion software that scans and converts article PDFs into a format digestible by Apple News+. Apple's provided tools are reportedly not up to snuff, leaving magazines no choice but to commit resources toward re-editing the copy and design of each issue.
Further, the tools are standardized, meaning output is largely homogenous. For publishers looking to stand out in a crowded industry, and have done so with successful print design, Apple's answer to digital adaptation is sub-optimal.
The result is a disparity in design that sees some magazines displayed with custom article templates, interactive graphics and special animated cover art, while others are simple PDF scans. Publishers are reportedly vexed by the uneven user experience.
"You think of Apple, and they're so design-conscious," a second source said. "This doesn't feel like that at all."
Apple does maintain a team of designers tasked with fielding pitches for design help, but the initiative is not applied evenly to all publishers. Headed up by former Wired editor Jason Tanz, the group accepts requests for assistance on specific articles or story packages. While Apple handed out a global email address to all participating publications, a smaller group was afforded access to a private Slack channel.
Apple's preferential treatment did not sit well with some publishers.
"They're basically playing favorites," said a source at a participating Apple News+ publication. "It always seems to be good for the big guys, but not for the rest of us."
Publishers also complain about Apple's indifference to confusion as to whether Apple News+ interferes or cannibalizes digital sponsorships of print edition packages.
Apple debuted Apple News+ at a special event in March and launched the service as part of iOS 12.2. A report in early April claims some 200,000 people signed up for a trial subscription to the service in its first 48 hours of availability.
Citing five publications taking part in Apple News+, Digiday reports Apple is giving unequal aid to participants of the subscription news and magazine service, with much of the company's assistance seemingly focused on larger publishers.
Perhaps most detrimental to Apple's next-generation news hub is a reported lack of support for adapting publications, both physical and digital, into the custom Apple News+ format.
According to sources, Apple in pitches leading up to the release of News+ presented a customized version of soccer magazine Eight by Eight, suggesting all publishers would be furnished with their own specialized design assets and templates.
"They basically said, We will help you out by providing templates,'" a source told Digiday.
That has not been the case.
Beyond giving input on in-house templates designed by larger outlets, Apple has not provided its own solution for publications to insert into their respective workflows. Instead, the tech giant is outsourcing template design work to outside vendors, a strategy that has yielded mixed results, the report said.
Publishers of physical magazines who opted out of custom templates, or simply could not afford to roll their own tools, are left to rely on "buggy" conversion software that scans and converts article PDFs into a format digestible by Apple News+. Apple's provided tools are reportedly not up to snuff, leaving magazines no choice but to commit resources toward re-editing the copy and design of each issue.
Further, the tools are standardized, meaning output is largely homogenous. For publishers looking to stand out in a crowded industry, and have done so with successful print design, Apple's answer to digital adaptation is sub-optimal.
The result is a disparity in design that sees some magazines displayed with custom article templates, interactive graphics and special animated cover art, while others are simple PDF scans. Publishers are reportedly vexed by the uneven user experience.
"You think of Apple, and they're so design-conscious," a second source said. "This doesn't feel like that at all."
Apple does maintain a team of designers tasked with fielding pitches for design help, but the initiative is not applied evenly to all publishers. Headed up by former Wired editor Jason Tanz, the group accepts requests for assistance on specific articles or story packages. While Apple handed out a global email address to all participating publications, a smaller group was afforded access to a private Slack channel.
Apple's preferential treatment did not sit well with some publishers.
"They're basically playing favorites," said a source at a participating Apple News+ publication. "It always seems to be good for the big guys, but not for the rest of us."
Publishers also complain about Apple's indifference to confusion as to whether Apple News+ interferes or cannibalizes digital sponsorships of print edition packages.
Apple debuted Apple News+ at a special event in March and launched the service as part of iOS 12.2. A report in early April claims some 200,000 people signed up for a trial subscription to the service in its first 48 hours of availability.
Comments
Also PDF is not designed to be an intermediate format and the difference between a PDF which is cleanly readable to scanning software versus one that is not readable is up to the publisher to understand the technicalities on how to export PDFs which contain the necessary structure to make this work for them. Apple is assuming publishers are competent in this regard, let me assure you this would be rare.
Generally speaking if they're using their online or print PDF outputs for scanning it's not going to work well, those are both optimised in ways that give a hard time to scanning software. They're better to export to an ePub format, or you know - stop being cheap technophobes and invest in proper content management workflows.
I’ve never seen the scroll issues 23july2016 describes, but I’m not using it on my Mac either (because Marzipan v1 is rather underwhelming, it must be said). Always a good idea to see if the same issues appear on a completely different person’s Mac before assuming Apple is at fault.
I’m currently in a very busy period (recertification time!) but will check out News+ and TV+ when things calm down. Really looking forward to this year’s WWDC, as there seems to be a lot of stuff bubbling under that I hope will build on the positive experiences I’m having with my Apple gear.
In the News app, when I click on presented articles, many of them say they need a subscription to News +. If that's the case, they shouldn't be presented in the first place IMO.
Fix it apple.
(I literally just tested every one of your "complaints" and discovered that only the one about a word search was true. Maybe spend a little time learning to use the program?)
(I literally just tested every one of your "complaints" and discovered that only the one about a word search was true. Maybe spend a little time learning to use the program?)
Even still, it's not like you're trapped into the app - if there are more complicated tasks (including ones that weren't listed) one can copy the contents, or open it in safari, or run a shortcut, or send it to another app etc, etc, etc.
By the way, you can't copy or select text from many of the pages in News app including the home page. I recommend that you try before you conclude otherwise (I hope you are not too embarrassed by that error.)
Oh, by the way, the News app crashes a lot, even as I was trying to test your unsubstantiated claims. It crashes once an hour. Of course maybe I'm wrong on that too and you can explain why.
"News quit unexpectedly. Click Reopen to open the application again. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple.
Newsstand.
iAd.
Apple Music Connect.
iBooks Author.
Apple News.
All of the above relied upon or still rely upon custom proprietary templates or formats to either use them at all, or to get the best out of them.
Apple has a history of starting projects like this, realising that it requires significant ongoing resource, and then losing interest. Content creators are left to put the bulk of the time and effort in without a clear reward or return on investment.
Naturally, they eventually take Apple’s lead and stop bothering.
It’s why much of Apple News’ content is PDF based, why many books in the iBooks store are straight up ePub formats, why many artists can’t be bothered spending time to make special posts for Apple Music Connect in addition to social media posts, why iAd quality and content flopped, and why iTunes LP fell by the wayside even while purchased downloads were at their height of popularity.
Meanwhile, apps remain incredibly popular because Apple invests significant time in the development tools and sales/deployment infrastructure necessary for their creation and distribution.
I was initially excited about subscribing to this new service, but unfortunately it seems run by idealogues pushing a far left agenda.
I cancelled my subscription last week.