The Verge:
> I will say that for $10 a month, News Plus is the most comprehensive magazine subscription service on the market. (Scribd is a very solid alternative for non-iOS users.)
>
> If you’re thinking about subscribing, that — and only that — is what you should be focused on: getting a service designed mostly for magazines.
I have to agree here. If you are into magazines, Apple News+ is a tremendous value.
But as a news source? Early days still.
Don’t get me wrong. I do think there’s a lot of high-value, news-related content on the site. But the user interface makes getting to those stories a challenge.
Part of the issue is the primitive search features. And the like/dislike/block functionality being hidden in the kitchen junk drawer that the share icon has become. [UPDATE: Swipe right to dislike a story. Not obvious to me, given the multiple columns, but it’s there. And also in the junk drawer.]
My sense, also, is that the News+ interface is constrained by what cross-platform features are currently supported by Marzipan.
Add in the complexities of Apple News+ being one step removed from the news cycles. My sense is that breaking news has to wait to make an appearance until the next sync cycle between Apple News and the news origin.
As I said, it’s early days still. If you are into magazines, the value is clear. If you are looking for breaking news, or want a highly tunable experience, stay tuned.
Financially it would be worth it to me – I subscribe to The New Yorker – BUT the way the New Yorker content is presented, the difficulty searching available issues and the lack of access to the entire New Yorker archive are deal killers for me. I believe the same issues apply to the other magazines and pale compared to the newspaper limitations.
I’ve dropped the trial sub.
I don’t see News+ as being a news source, especially not a breaking news source. It will die if they make that their focus.
What it should do is provide outstanding stories from magazines that either supplement news or are things that don’t make the news. In their heyday, Time, Newsweek and the like provided the depth on current events that newspapers and TV couldn’t. Other magazines like National Geographic, etc gave people stories about things that weren’t in the news. You subscribed to the magazines that covered topics which interested you. National Geographic for world cultures, archeology etc. Movie magazines for celebrity news or, if you were into cinema as art, there were magazines for that. And on and on.
News+ needs to scratch that itch. I can get the top news stories ANYWHERE. I’m inundated with it. But it’s harder and harder to find things that cover cool stories about things I like. That’s ideally where News+ can help… surface stories I like to me. Stories you like to you. And so on.
I don’t need more News. I need more +.
I don’t see News+ as being a news source, especially not a breaking news source. It will die if they make that their focus.
What it should do is provide outstanding stories from magazines that either supplement news or are things that don’t make the news. In their heyday, Time, Newsweek and the like provided the depth on current events that newspapers and TV couldn’t. Other magazines like National Geographic, etc gave people stories about things that weren’t in the news. You subscribed to the magazines that covered topics which interested you. National Geographic for world cultures, archeology etc. Movie magazines for celebrity news or, if you were into cinema as art, there were magazines for that. And on and on.
News+ needs to scratch that itch. I can get the top news stories ANYWHERE. I’m inundated with it. But it’s harder and harder to find things that cover cool stories about things I like. That’s ideally where News+ can help… surface stories I like to me. Stories you like to you. And so on.
I don’t need more News. I need more +.