‘The Guardian’ embraces Apple News after initial doubt: ‘Significant opportunities to reach a wider audience’

Apple News has had its ups and downs over the years, both attracting some large publishers to the platform and losing others. Now, an improved commission structure has apparently been enough to lure back The Guardian to the Apple News platform once and for all.

As reported by the Press Gazette this week, The Guardian initially left Apple News in the UK in 2017 but “has been drawn back by new sales opportunities.” This decision was driven in part, the report says, by Apple News now allowing The Guardian to “sell subscriptions and accept reader donations through the app.”

The Guardian also qualifies for a 15% commission rate, rather than 30%, because it’s available in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. If it were only available in one territory, it would face a 30% commission.

The Guardian left Apple News in 2017 altogether, returned to the US in 2020, and to Australia in 2021. With this change, it’s also now available in Apple News in the UK and Canada.

In an email to Guardian staff last week, CEO Anna Bateson explained the reasoning for returning to Apple News:

In an email to staff on Wednesday afternoon, chief executive Anna Bateson told staff that The Guardian would return to Apple News in the UK after experiencing success on the platform in the US since 2020 and Australia since 2021.

She said The Guardian had left the app in 2017 to focus on “developing our then-nascent reader revenue proposition on our own platform.

“Since then we have continued to build our own platforms in the UK, US, Australia and globally as strong destinations, but we can also see significant opportunities to reach a wider audience for our journalism and associated commercial benefits through partnership with Apple News – who have now made it easier for publishers to generate supporter and advertising revenue from their platforms.”

In a statement, a Guardian News and Media spokesperson added that the company will “closely monitor the impact of rejoining Apple News on our wider strategy.”

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