Apple News+ was officially announced earlier today, allowing users to pay $9.99 per month for access to 300 magazines and select newspapers. One of those newspapers is The Wall Street Journal, but there are a few details worth noting about its inclusion.
The Journal reports this evening that its involvement in Apple News+ is largely due to its goal of hoping to expose additional people to its journalism:
Meanwhile, Robert Thomson, News Corp chief executive, said that The Wall Street Journal’s partnership with Apple is an example of it making sense to partner with a tech company. Thomson has been critical of companies like Google and Facebook getting involved in the news, but he is more optimistic about Apple. “It’s important that we partner with tech companies when that makes sense,” he said.
Most notably, however, tonight’s report offers detail about the breadth of The WSJ’s library that will be accessible to Apple News+ subscribers. According to the report, Apple subscribers will have access to three days’ worth of archives. They will be able to access all categories of coverage, though.
Notably, the terms of the agreement between The Journal and Apple give the paper the option to dropout:
The report also says that The Journal will hire roughly 50 new newsroom staffers to help “meet the needs of the Apple product.” Apple isn’t going to share detailed customer data with News+ partners, but they will be a able to see traffic data:
Apple users will have access to only three days’ worth of the Journal’s archive, the people said. The Journal also negotiated terms that would allow it to drop out of the service, they said.
Apple News+ is available today in Canada and the United States. It will come to the U.K. and Australia later this year.
