Apple Unveils News Partner Program

Apple Inc. has launched its News Partner Program as part of initiatives to expand work with and support for journalism. The new program is designed for subscription news publications that provide their content to Apple News in Apple News Format or ANF.

Publishers who join Apple News will be offered a commission rate of 15 percent on qualifying in-app purchase subscriptions from day one. Publishers can start applying for the News Partner Program.

ANF unlocks the full benefit of the platform for publishers, and empowers them to create brand-forward stories, immersive issues, and audio stories. ANF also supports advertising, and publishers keep 100 percent of the revenue from advertising they sell within Apple News.

The News Partner Program aims to ensure Apple News customers maintain access to trusted news and information from many top publishers across the world. This will support publishers’ financial stability and advance efforts to further media literacy and diversity in news coverage and newsrooms.

The participants are required to maintain an Apple News channel in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and publish all content to that channel in ANF. The publishers who are based outside of these regions and who do not publish in ANF must share content through an RSS feed as permitted by their rights.

Further, the primary function of a publisher app must be to deliver original, professionally authored news content.

Publishers’ apps must be available on the App Store and allow users to purchase auto-renewable subscriptions through Apple’s in-app purchase system.

They must also agree to a separate addendum to the Apple Developer Program License Agreement. The News Publisher Program is available to Apple Developer Program members globally.

Apple also announced a recommitment of support to three non-profit organizations – Common Sense Media, the News Literacy Project, and Osservatorio Permanente Giovani-Editori – that offer nonpartisan, independent media literacy programs.

The News Partner Program will also support, fund, and collaborate with additional global organizations that educate news consumers on media literacy and further efforts to diversify news coverage and newsrooms.

The company will announce specific projects that will be supported by News Partner Program at a later date. It will represent organizations doing critical and impactful work on these issues.

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