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I start my mornings before work the same way, every day: I pour a cup of coffee, watch some YouTube videos, and sift through the various newsletters I subscribe to. My interests vary from current events to which Kardashian is getting divorced. I don't read everything sent to my inbox, but I open up the headlines that grab my interest. Unfortunately, reading everything I want to has been challenging lately, thanks to paywalls popping up on some of the sites I visit the most. I’m all for supporting journalism, but there’s only so much I can afford to subscribe to. How can I keep up with all the latest celebrity gossip if I’m limited to four free Cosmopolitan articles a month?
Apple may have an answer. The tech giant released a subscription-based version of its News app, called News+, that provides access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including many of the publications I love the most that are now hidden behind a paywall. I decided to try out Apple News+ to see if it would feed my need for news and storytelling.
What is Apple News+?
Apple News+ is a news subscription service that gives you access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including TIME, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, People, and Cosmopolitan. While not all of these outlets have a paywall it’s nice to read them all in one place. You’ll also get digitized versions of the print magazines, meaning you can actually flip through one.
In addition to giving access to various news outlets, you can also listen to some stories, audiobook-style. This is great for commuters who want to hear some long-form content en route to work. As you use the News+ app. Apple will learn what you love to read and show you new content that you just might love. Apple News+ also offers curated local news based on where you live. Getting on a cross-country flight and need something to read? No problem. Apple News+ allows you to download whole magazines to your tablet, phone, or laptop to read offline.
As a bonus, you can share your News+ subscription with up to six family members.
What it’s like using Apple News+
Before writing this, I used Apple News+ for about a month. The app does a good job of curating stories that I'm interested in.
It offers enough content that I never feel like I'm out of things to read. Sometimes, it feels like there are so many options that it can be overwhelming. Thankfully, the app's personalized “For You” section quickly registered my reading habits and provided me with a mix of long-form entertainment and political pieces. However, I suspect that by having so much curated for me, I might be missing out on some major stories. I love that some of the magazines available to read in the app offered an amazing experience, compared to a regular dead-tree publication. They were filled with moving images and interactive graphics you wouldn’t be able to get in the print form.
The layout of the News+ app is incredibly Apple: crisp, clean, and simple. The app is easy to navigate and if there are any brands you’re particularly interested in, you can subscribe to the publication to get push notifications about top headlines and stories you’ll likely want to read later.
What I don’t like about Apple News+
Where Apple News+ succeeds as a discovery app, it could be more searchable.
Say I saw a story from Good Housekeeping on the Internet, but I hit a paywall. Since Good Housekeeping is available as part of a News+ subscription, I should be able to find the article in the app and read it, right? Well, yes... if you're lucky. In the time that I used the app, I found that finding a specific story wasn't easy. You need to be very specific about the keywords you use. This can make searching for what you want to read feel difficult and frustrating.
Additionally, I found the app was easy to navigate on larger screens, such as the one on my MacBook or an iPad. It was less intuitive to browse on my iPhone, however, which is where I used it the most. While perusing News+ on my smartphone, I found myself scrolling far more than I'd prefer, to get to the stories I wanted to read. This is because, in many instances, you'll have to get past large ads, images, and videos: content that's designed to be viewed on a tablet. It just doesn't translate well to a small screen. It was enough to make me stop reading, at times.
Finally, while Apple News+ offers a dazzling number of publications, there are some very notable omissions in its lineup of premium content. The New York Times and The Washington Post, for example, aren't included with your subscription. Those are two newspapers of record that most of us turn to as a must-have news resource.
Is Apple News+ free?
No. While Apple does offer some free stories, daily, as part of its free Apple News service, Apple News+ costs $9.99 per month.
With the free version of the app, you get personalized stories picked for you (based on your reading habits,) local news, and an audio rundown of the biggest headlines of the day. However, you won’t get access to the scads of newspapers and magazines the News+ offers. If you’re into basic news and headlines, Apple News alone should suffice. But if you're a voracious reader or want to dig into a deeper understanding of news, culture, and trends, ponying up the money for a subscription could be worth it.
Is Apple News+ biased?
I wouldn’t say the app itself is biased. But because it caters to your interests, you’re less likely to see news sources that don’t fit with your opinions.
From what I saw during my time using the app, many of the publications on Apple News+ lean a little to the left, politically. But there is centrist and right-leaning content as well. To see more content aligned with your politics, it's possible to follow certain new sites. Following a site makes it more likely to appear in your newsfeed. It's worth noting that while you can't block any sites, it is possible to give a thumbs down to individual pieces of content. Doing so makes it less likely that you'll see similar stories in the future.
How to cancel Apple News+
To cancel Apple News+, you don’t have to jump through too many hoops. Simply open “Settings'' on your iPhone, Macbook, or iPad, tap “View Apple ID,” and enter your password. From there, look for “Subscriptions.” Find the Apple News app subscription, and select “Cancel Subscription.”
Once you've canceled your subscription, the app will only show you free content.
Is Apple News+ worth it?
Apple News+ is a great news discovery service that lets you pay one fee for a ton of content, instead of being bled dry by multiple subscriptions. I like how I could see top stories from a variety of news outlets and then cherry-pick what I was interested in reading. I also really loved the “For You” page and the variety it provided me, from stories on canceling student debt to Hailey Bieber on getting married young. There’s an endless amount of content at your fingertips.
While I still love my newsletters, I’m happy to add Apple News+ into my rotation to discover new stories each day.
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