At the moment, Apple News is as good a partner in Big Tech as many media companies are going to find. Almost every publisher Semafor spoke to said that Apple paid well and directed eyeballs to their longer, more ambitious work. While some of the articles surfaced by the app are algorithmic and based on user behavior, the company also employs a team of journalists — led by editor-in-chief Lauren Kern, a well-regarded former New York Magazine editor — who seem to prioritize putting quality journalism front-and-center on the app. As a reader, it’s a nice product, and in many cases a better reading experience than publishers’ own homepages and apps.
Apple has launched a limited time promotion, offering boosted trade in values when buying a new iPhone. From now until June 3, customers trading in their iPhone 11 or newer at the Apple Store can get extra credit towards the purchase of their new phone.
The value of the promotion isn’t that dramatic, however. Depending on model, the trade-in amounts have increased by approximately $10-$30 as part of this promotion.
I think there is a general lack of imagination out there from the ardently anti-touch-on-Macs crowd out there. It feels to me like they’re pointing to what they think are “impossible” problems and immediately throw their hands in the air as if nothing can be done. I'm not saying this mock up is perfect, but it is an attempt to actually address the issue rather than throwing in the towel at the first sign of any challenge.
Was Hulu -- the original version, where different studios pooled their shows to form a streaming service to compete with Netflix -- a fluke? Music labels are not combining their albums to form a service to compete with Apple Music and Spotify? Book publishers are not setting up an alternative to the Kindle store? And newspapers are not aggregating their offerings to get a more direct relationship with their customers, as opposed to outsourcing to Apple News+?
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Thanks for reading.