Apple News app is off to a rocky start

Since it launched last September, Apple Inc.’s News app has attracted more than 100 publishing partners world-wide hoping to capitalise on the growing consumption of news on mobile devices.

Apple’s Eddy Cue said 40m people have used its News app. 

There is one major problem: Neither media companies nor Apple know how many people are reading.

The company mistakenly has been underestimating the number of readers using the News app since its launch, and passing that inaccurate information on to publishers.

Publishers don’t pay to post their content to the News app, but getting an accurate tally of users is important because it can affect their ability to sell advertising and to manage their resources accordingly. Apple allows publishers to keep 100 per cent of revenue when they sell their own ads into the app; they keep 70 per cent of ad revenue if Apple sells ads on their behalf.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said the company missed the error as it focused on other aspects of the product. The company didn’t explain how the problem occurred or say exactly when it might be rectified.

Read the full article here

Source: WSJ

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