Apple Stepping Up Plans to Expand News App to More Countries

Apple plans to expand its News app by adding more countries to the platform beyond the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Financial Times.

Plans reportedly include creating local news coverage in the UK, as well as bringing the puzzle section to the country, which is currently limited to the US and Canada.

Apple News and Apple News+, both free and subscription versions of the app, provide a mix of curated and personalized content, including magazine and newspaper articles, as well as games, podcasts and newsletters. The free service makes money solely from advertising, while the subscription service costs $12.99 per month in the US and £12.99 in the UK.

The renewed push comes alongside Apple’s efforts to improve advertising performance and is aimed at increasing Apple’s role as a revenue source for publishers. Apple News currently reaches approximately 125 million people each month and contributes to the company’s growing services business, including Apple TV+ and Apple Pay, which is collectively valued at approximately $96 billion annually.

The move comes amid a significant drop in digital revenue across media groups following Meta’s decision to downplay news coverage, as well as changes to Google’s algorithms that have reduced search traffic and the impact of AI news summaries and search queries.

According to FTApple’s own research has shown that Apple News reaches a different audience than most publishers, the sources said. The audience is trending towards a more affluent audience, one media executive told the newspaper, adding that she is “read well in the corridors of power in Westminster and Washington”.

But Apple News’ influence has been a mixed blessing for publishers. Some groups have generated significant income through the platform. However, attempts to monetize articles are complicated by Apple’s strict data privacy rules, which prevent advertisers from targeting readers using third-party data or IP addresses.