Sources: Apple signed on 200,000 subscribers to Apple News+ in its first 48 hours in March but has since struggled to add customers
if Apple can't throw traffic and get them subscribers, you think individual pubs will be able to switch to paid models. Too much free stuff out there!!! https://twitter.com/... Jason Snell / @jsnell : Who could have predicted? Oh, right, it was everybody. https://twitter.com/... @joesteel : When all of Apple's services get bundled together Apple News+ is going to be the landline they force you to have even though you'd never use it. https://twitter.com/... Andrew Wallenstein / @awallenstein : Which makes me wonder: is it possible Disney+ could see its own subscription cadence trend similarly, i.e. a surge followed by a trickle? https://twitter.com/... M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler : Apple probably should have pulled the Facebook move first and paid the content producers to get the content in the app to offer a great, free reading experience for their customers bundled into iOS. https://twitter.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Thanks to everyone who saw Apple News+ for what it was and just subscribed to good newspapers and magazines instead https://twitter.com/... Scott Stein / @jetscott : Hey, it's what should have happened this year https://twitter.com/... Michael Sayman / @michaelsayman : Let the re-bundling begin! https://twitter.com/... Joshua Benton / @jbenton : This seems wrong/unclear to me. Selling Apple News+ in a bundle with Music or TV+ would make publishers less *per subscriber*, yes. But the whole point is that the number of subscribers would go up. There are a LOT more Apple Music subs than News+ subs. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/... Steve Kovach / @stevekovach : Apple Prime taking shape. https://twitter.com/... Mark Gurman / @markgurman : The first evidence that Apple is serious about bundles: its contracts with publishers for Apple News+ have a provision that allows Apple to bundle News+ with other services. Publishers in that case would get less $. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Matt Rosoff / @mattrosoff : They have to get the pricing/value right. My main impression of Apple subscriptions today is something that you don't really know why you're paying for it but you're afraid something might break if you stop—extra storage, cloud music sync, etc. Not a positive feeling. https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
The launch arc matters here: Apple built the paywall system inside the News app back in 2016, then launched News+ in March 2019 amid warnings it could accelerate the demise of news outlets by decimating their reader relationships. Benedict Evans framed the whole subscription push as a play for incremental revenue, lower churn, and Apple-branded curation.
Eight months later the growth story has inverted: a strong 48-hour burst of 200,000 signups, then stagnation. Yet publisher reliance has only deepened — The Daily Beast and Time now book millions annually from News+ — which makes the stall an income problem for outlets, not just a metrics problem for Apple.
First-order effects
- Publishers who restructured around News+ revenue now sit on a distribution channel whose subscriber base has flatlined, capping the very incremental revenue the service was pitched to deliver.
- Apple's churn-reduction argument for its services bundle weakens: a stagnant News+ is dead weight inside a pitch built on every service pulling its own weight.
Second-order effects
- Bloomberg reports News+ contracts let Apple bundle the service with others at a lower per-subscriber payout to publishers — so as growth stalls, Apple's incentive shifts toward bundling, and publishers' effective rates fall exactly when new signups dry up.
- The same dynamic shadows Apple's broader aggregation strategy: the TV service was designed from the start as a storefront hosting other companies' streams, and Wallenstein openly wonders whether Disney+ will show a similar post-launch subscription fade.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, news economics consolidate around platforms that control both reach and payout terms — publishers become dependent suppliers whose per-subscriber compensation is set unilaterally by the bundle owner.
- The 'landline' critique — News+ surviving mainly because it is forced into a larger bundle — points toward subscription value being judged at the bundle level rather than per service, eroding any publisher's ability to negotiate on standalone merit.
The trend: Platform-owned content bundles are converting media partners from growth partners into captive suppliers whose payouts and visibility are set by the bundle owner.