Apple adds browse tab to Apple News to help users find new topics, new channels, and stories from publishers, is adding new sidebar to News and Stocks on iPad
Joan E. Solsman / CNET :
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple News has been iterating on how readers find stories since launch: the Flipboard-style app debuted in 2015 with publishers keeping ad revenue, then gained an editor-curated Top Stories tab with Comscore integration so publishers got advertiser credit for their traffic.
The new Browse tab extends that arc from editorial curation toward self-directed discovery of topics, channels, and publisher stories — a meaningful shift now that Apple reportedly counts ~125 million monthly News users and is weighing expansion into more countries per the 2025 international growth plans.
First-order effects
- Publishers gain a persistent surface where their channels and individual stories are discoverable by topic, not just through editors' Top Stories picks — directly affecting whose traffic gets counted under the Comscore arrangement.
- iPad users get sidebar navigation in both News and Stocks, restructuring how the apps present sections on the larger screen.
Second-order effects
- If Browse shifts reading toward publisher-selected channels, the balance of traffic between Apple-curated placements and publisher-owned presence moves — sharpening the stakes of the paywall system Apple was building to let publishers sell subscriptions inside the app.
Third-order effects
- A discoverable catalog of channels and topics positions Apple News less as a single feed and more as a storefront for news — the structure needed if the reported country-by-country expansion is to work without an editor corps in every market.
The trend: Apple News is evolving from an editor-curated feed into a navigable catalog of topics and channels, building the discovery infrastructure its international scaling depends on.