Nieman Lab:
The big news — and pitched as one of the biggest new features in iOS 9 — is an app called News. It’s an awful lot like Flipboard — though the power of being installed on every iPhone and iPad is obviously huge.
The presentation features all the same sort of bells and whistles we’ve seen in Facebook’s Instant Articles — animations, swipe-able photo galleries, fluid movement. And it promises, like other aggregator apps, to get better with time, as it learns which sorts of articles you’re interested in.
Its importance remains to be seen. I don’t necessarily think “Apple just sherlock’ed Flipboard” but, depending on how news organizations take to this, it will be another medium to publish rich content on. I’m interested to see whether or not average people will be able to create “magazines” with these tools.
For me as an occasional blogger, the aspect of going head-to-head with the big outlets on the readers’ devices is intriguing. I sounds like a breakthrough in delivering any information from any source on any device – and leaving it up to the reader to choose. I signed up and now I wait what happens…
I have enjoyed Flipboard for a couple years. It’s a great way to get up to speed when you need to kill time.
Apple creating something similar, and better, could be killer…
The problem for the news business is bigger than the the problem ever was for the music business. Sales collapsed, but the music audience still existed.
The ‘news’ audience has evaporated. People still get news, but it’s become equivalent to ingredient lists on food packages. It comes as part of the package on other things (facebook & twitter). Folks look at the top 3 or 4 things and just ignore the rest.
News could be interesting. If my local paper is involved (presumably, through a chain of ownership or channels), I could set up a news feed to cover the ultra-local the same way I handle national and international news. I would love that.
Flipboard definitely got sherlocked in this case. They are going to say they will create more and better than Apple, but the truth is most iPhone users will not bother with Flipboard once News is front and center on their home screen.
And the cynic in me says, “Not another app I can’t delete…”
But hey, app thinning.
Isn’t this actually a strike against Facebook Instant Articles? Apple is offering news outlets a way to publish to a large audience in a streamlined engaging way all without ceding control of their content. Facebook is doing the same except they take over control of the content.
Yep, and every iOS user a service like FB Instant Articles loses to a service like this is especially painful since iOS users are a highly-desired marketing demographic.
HOPEFULLY, Apple will leave Flipboard to die on it’s own. It’s a terrible service and deserves a messy death. BUT, one thing they did before they finalized there own demise is bought the ORIGINAL news aggregator, Canadian firm ZITE. IF Apple could make it’s new News app more like ZITE, THEN they would have something magic. Zite is still limping along even as Flipboard is trying to kill it, but die-hard fans are fighting Flipboard all the way.
Hopefully, our pals in Cupertino will get there before ZITE collapses under the weight of a dying parent.
it’s not another app since its replacing the old one. your net effect is the same.
on FB… a friend of mine thought News was a reaction to FB’s Instant Articles. i dont think so. if anything, i think IA was a move against something like News… Apple needs News to keep people using a device like iPad to read content. FB needs IA to keep people using FB.
Another step towards marginalizing news.
Very true
I love Flipboard but I just don’t use it daily anymore. Their email service that sends me top ten articles from my selections helps keep the app in front of my brain and I occasionally click through, but not sure if I can get it or News back into the daily routine. I just spend too much time surfing the web and hitting my regular links in a browser. (I know, I should use RSS feeds, but I don’t. I just love to waste time I guess.)