Major newspaper publishers have balked at Apple’s proposed terms for an upcoming news subscription service but according to a new report, a bunch of publishers have already signed up for the service with a 50:50 revenue split.
Recode‘s Peter Kafka has the story:
Apple has already signed many publishers to deals where they’ll get 50 percent of the revenue Apple generates through subscriptions to its news service, which iscurrently called Textureand will be relaunched as a premium version of Apple News this spring.
So why are some of these publishers eager to share half of all the revenue journalists make through the service with Apple?
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Kafka explains:
In the words of a publishing executive who is optimistic about Apple’s plans: “It’s the absolute dollars paid out that matters, not the percentage.”
Ultimately, it remains to be seen if that argument will persuade the big newspapers that Apple is trying to add to its service.
Both of them have built their own digital subscription businesses over the past few years, and they may feel that they’re better owning 100 percent of a product they control than a piece of a collective run by a giant tech company.
The Wall Street Journalyesterday claimed that Apple’s proposal consists of the company keeping half of the revenue earned from monthly subscriptions while the rest of the revenue would go into a pool that would be divided among publishers according to the amount of time users spend engaged with their articles.
Recode commented:
I’m not surprised that the Journal story is critical of Apple’s proposed terms because the newspaper is among launch partners for the news service. “The Wall Street Journal also has concerns, but its recent conversations with Apple have been productive,” the paper wrote.
Of course, Apple’s talks with potential launch partners are still ongoing so deals with the publishers could still be reached in time for launch.
