Apple News+ will soon have a new competitor. The Information reports today that CNN is planning a new news aggregation service that would include a mix of subscription and advertising-based content.
CNN digital chief Andrew Morse teased the new service today. The service does not yet have a name, but it’s being referred to internally as “NewsCo.” Through this, CNN would “pay news organizations to feature their content on the platform.”
To build NewsCo, CNN has dedicated engineers and business executives to the project — and hired a notable former Spotify engineer:
CNN’s NewsCo project seems like a direct competitor to Apple News and Apple News+, offering a mix of free advertising-based content and premium subscription content. CNN would then pay publishers for including their content on the platform.
Speaking to the Information, Morse said CNN hopes to “build a better option for news organizations, which are losing ad revenue and viewers” to platforms like Facebook and Apple News. CNN could run into problems enticing its competitors to sign on to the platform, but Morse doesn’t seem worried:
Apple News+ launched in March in the US and Canada, and has since expanded to the UK and Australia. The service costs $9.99 per month and includes access to various magazines and subscription news outlets.
Are you an Apple News+ subscriber? Do you think Apple needs more competition in this area? Let us know down in the comments.
