[smogcutter]

Having once worked at a publisher (although in IT not ad sales or product, so call it “adjacent” rather than inside baseball), I’m certain this is about negotiating with publishers rather than apple’s own priorities.

A platform like Apple News does very little to redirect traffic back to the home page where you show the big 1st party ads that actually bankroll the org. Users stay in the app. From a publishers pov it’s really unattractive unless you can show ads.

[mcculley]

Have publishers even considered selling a subscription without ads? I realize it would cost more. I would really like to subscribe to a newspaper that has readers as its only customers.

[Firmwarrior]

I think the closest anyone comes to that is substack

You can subscribe to all the publications out there, but it's the same worthless clickbait drivel whether you're paying or not

[flycaliguy]

I wish, unfortunately it appears that being willing to pay for things makes your eyeballs even more valuable.