The Apple News+ subscription service is now available to Australian readers. Apple News+ subscribers can access current and past issues and individual articles from magazines such as Vogue Australia, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, Australian Women’s Health, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Elle, GQ Australia, Australian Men’s Health and Delicious. Australian subscribers can also access international newspapers and magazines including The Wall Street Journal (US), Los Angeles Times (US), The Times (UK), The Sunday Times (UK), Forbes (US), Esquire (US), Rolling Stone (US), National Geographic (US), New York magazine (US), The Hollywood Reporter (US), Empire (UK) and Grazia (UK).
While major publishers like News Corp Australia, Bauer Media and Pacific are on board, the service is missing three of Australia’s biggest news brands – The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review.
As to why Nine didn’t join the other publishers, the company told Mediaweek: “We have chosen not to participate in Apple News+ because their non-negotiable terms do not sustain a significant investment in quality, independent journalism.
“We remain focused on successfully growing our direct subscriptions business and investment in our newsrooms,” said a spokesperson for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review.
Apple News+ is offering richly designed layouts, animated magazine covers, vivid photography and bold typography optimised for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Subscribers can enjoy cover-to-cover access to their favourite magazines, which are also available for offline reading, and receive notifications when a new issue of a favourite publication is available. Apple News+ also includes collections of articles and featured issues curated by Apple News editors and personalised recommendations.
All Apple News users in Australia, the UK, US and Canada can continue to enjoy the free news experience within the app on iPhone, iPad and Mac, including access to Top Stories, Trending Stories and a personalised feed of articles. In the Today and News+ tabs, subscribers will be presented with individual article, topic and issue recommendations based on both editorial curation and personalised suggestions that maintain user privacy.
“Apple News+ offers hundreds of the world’s most popular publications, all discoverable through personalised and curated recommendations,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News. “The quality of the journalism, the beautiful photography, the stunning live covers and custom-designed articles in this collection are second to none. We think readers in Australia will be delighted with the offering, and we are proud to support the work of our newest publisher partners.”
“Apple News+ is an exciting evolution of the immersive print media experience,” said Sarah-Belle Murphy, executive general manager of Digital Operations and Publishing at Bauer Media. “The new subscription service offers enormous opportunity to reach new audiences in an elevated digital environment. The ability to reach millions of readers seamlessly through Apple’s ecosystem presents an innovative future for both magazines and the subscription model. We are looking forward to this next exciting step.”
“Apple News+ is an opportunity to introduce our compelling content to a new audience via Apple’s vast ecosystem,” said Will Everitt, director of Digital Product and Technology at Pacific Magazines. “This is an exciting new platform, and we’re keen to be an early adopter and partner.”
Apple News+ is available today in Australia for $14.99 a month. Customers can sign up for a free one-month trial, and the plan automatically renews after the trial ends. Apple News+ in Australia is supported on iOS 12.2 or macOS 10.14.4. Through Family Sharing, up to six family members can share one Apple News+ subscription. Apple News+ is also available today in the UK and launched in the US and Canada in March 2019.