Apple is reportedly readying a monthly subscription service for news (AAPL)

pulse

April 17, 2018 4:22 PM

The Apple News subscription could look a lot like Apple's streaming-music service, Apple Music.

Apple is planning to launch a premium subscription for news, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Last month it bought Texture, a magazine subscription service that costs $9.99 a month.
The Apple News subscription could look a lot like Apple's streaming-music service, Apple Music.

Apple is planning to launch its own premium subscription service for news, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The subscription could launch later this year in an updated version of the Apple News app, according to the report. Last month, Apple bought Texture, a magazine subscription service that costs $9.99 a month. Most of Texture's employees will be integrated into the Apple News team, according to Bloomberg.

Apple News today offers the ability to sell advertisements to participating publishers, but given Apple's personal-privacy policies, a subscription service may be a better fit for the iPhone company. Apple plans to share subscription revenue with publishers, according to the report. Apple already sells a $9.99 monthly all-you-can-stream subscription under Apple Music.

Apple News and Apple Music are part of Apple's services division, which CEO Tim Cook has highlighted in recent years as one of the strongest growth categories for the company. The line item, which includes revenue from iCloud, Apple Music, and the App Store, posted $30 billion in sales for 2017.

Apple executives have said they plan to hit a target of $50 billion in services revenue by 2021.

Apple previously emphasized magazines as a key part of its iPad strategy in 2010.

Read the entire report at Bloomberg.

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