News

Apple News+ launches in Australia with News Corp, Pacific and Bauer onboard, but no Nine

Tech giant Apple’s subscription news service, Apple News+, has finally rolled out in Australia, with News Corp Australia signing on as a partner, but without Nine or its metro titles.

The service has launched in both Australia and UK, with the Australian partnership matching an agreement between News UK and Apple which will see The Times and The Sunday Times available through Apple News+ to UK, US, Canadian and Australian users of the platform.

Apple News+ has launched in Australia

The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Advertiser, The Courier Mail, Mercury, NT News and The Australian will all be available on the platform, alongside News Corp’s premium brands including Vogue Australia, Vogue Living, GQ Australia, Taste.com.au, Super Food Ideas and Delicious, for a $14.99 subscription fee. A one-month free trial is available, which automatically renews, for the subscription fee, after it ends.

News Corp’s The Wall Street Journal has been available on the platform for US and Canadian subscribers since its launch in the US and Canada in March.

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson used the partnership announcement to hit out at some of the other tech giants the company is less keen to work with.

“We are proud to partner globally with a company that truly believes in the profundity of provenance and that there should be a premium for premium journalism. Apple has acted positively, honourably and decisively to change the digital landscape, while other gatekeepers, such as Google, prefer hype and hypocrisy.”

News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller said the agreement’s significance was the potential for it to further increase audience numbers, and specifically subscribers, for the company’s mastheads.

Apple News+ will be available on iPhone, iPad and Mac

“This marks a very significant investment in our mastheads that enables us to connect with Apple’s large user base with an alternative reader experience,” Miller said.

“Apple clearly understands the importance of journalism and journalists and that the content originator should be rewarded fairly.

“Our partnership with Apple makes commercial and strategic sense. It recognises the importance and value of world-class journalism, bringing us new readers and reinforcing that quality journalism should be paid for. This relationship ticks the boxes and is a logical step for News Corp Australia partnership.”

The titles will be available on the Apple News+ app which can be accessed on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Users will also be able to access Bauer titles including Elle and The Australian Women’s Weekly, as well as some international titles including Rolling Stone and Grazia and Pacific titles including Australian Women’s Health. Both current and past issues will be available.

“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’ editor in chief Lauren Kern said: “Apple News+ offers hundreds of the world’s most popular publications, all discoverable through personalised and curated recommendations.

“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.”

The platform launched to a host of issues earlier this year, which seemed to delay the launch in Australia, and led to silence at the most recent Apple event. Since then, the tech giant has assured users it has fixed some of the bugs, but the pick up of the product still hasn’t been as universal as it was once suggested it may be.

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