Now the papers are escalating from individual refusals to collective action: a trade body speaking for NYT, WaPo, and WSJ is formally asking Apple to improve App Store deal terms for digital subscriptions. The through-line is that Apple's standard economics never fit premium news, and the publishers are testing whether organized pressure moves a gatekeeper that individual negotiations could not.
First-order effects
Apple now faces a unified negotiating bloc of its highest-profile news holdouts instead of one-off publisher talks, raising the cost of holding the line on current App Store subscription terms.
For the named papers, better terms would directly change the unit economics of selling subscriptions inside the App Store — the channel they largely bypassed when they declined News+'s split.
Second-order effects
Smaller publishers and subscription-app developers gain a template: if the Times, Post, and Journal extract concessions, every content company negotiating with Apple can cite the precedent.
The push feeds directly into organized regulatory pressure — months later, Digital Content Next, representing NYT, NPR, and WaPo among others, joined the Coalition for App Fairness, which calls for regulating app stores outright.
Third-order effects
If collective publisher pressure plus coalition advocacy holds, App Store commission rates shift from Apple-set terms toward negotiated or regulated ones — the gatekeeper model itself becoming the subject of policy rather than private contracts.
News publishers' reader relationships, which TechCrunch warned News+ could decimate by interposing Apple between outlet and subscriber, become the durable asset publishers organize around when platform terms turn unfavorable.
The trend: Content publishers are moving from refusing unfavorable platform deals to collectively challenging app-store gatekeeper economics, with regulation as the endgame.
Critics: 30% fee on IAP is too high. Apple Q3 2020: 38% gross margin company-wide. I think lowering that split for many developers would be good for Apple, too, but critics needs to grapple with fact that it's already a low-margin business for Apple. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@gartenberg
Michael Gartenberg on x
This is what happens when you secretly grant most favored nation status in secret https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint
Jason Kint on x
“Cook never clarified what those conditions are and which in reality presumably involve being a gigantic corporate tech rival like Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos personally negotiated with Apple SVP Eddy Cue to secure the terms, according to emails...” https://www.theverge.com/...
@neilcybart
Neil Cybart on x
@brick295 @gruber It's tough to compare the App Store's 30% revenue share to Apple's overall 38% margin. They are two completely different things. One is a composite figure reflecting COGS (cost of goods sold). The other ends up being the basis of net revenue.
@neilcybart
Neil Cybart on x
@gruber If the App Store had ~40% gross margin, Apple would blush. It's no where close to that when looking at total App Store revenue. It's much lower. I went over my math in the daily update from June 17th. Did you request archive access? If not, search “Apple vs. Hey” in your …
@rasmus_kleis
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen on x
Group of major publishers would like to get the same deal from Apple that Amazon got. I hope they get it but limited leverage? All newspaper companies had combined global revenues of something like $140b in 2019. Amazon? $281b. https://www.theverge.com/...
@tapbot_paul
Paul Haddad on x
If Publishers get 15%, regular developers should get 15% too. https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint
Jason Kint on x
We were following up specifically to this answer from Apple CEO Tim Cook as we were curious when he said to @RepHankJohnson Amazon Prime's deal was available to anyone “meeting the conditions.” What conditions? 🤷🏽♂ ️ @DCNorg https://twitter.com/...
@dcnorg
@dcnorg on x
“The terms of Apple's unique marketplace greatly impact the ability to continue to invest in high-quality, trusted news and entertainment particularly in competition with other larger firms.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@bzamayo
Benjamin Mayo on x
The central gist of this letter is 'you gave Amazon a 15% deal, why can't we have it too' ... which is a pretty fair question. https://9to5mac.com/...
@carnage4life
Dare Obasanjo on x
It's going to be increasingly difficult for Apple, the world's first $2 TRILLION company, to argue that it needs to take 30% of all digital revenue generated from iPhone/iPad apps from companies much smaller than them to survive. https://www.wsj.com/...
@jbenton
Joshua Benton on x
New by me —> Fortnite's battle with Apple and Google could have an impact on news publishers, too https://www.niemanlab.org/...