This feature has been written in partnership with Apple News specialists FlatPlan. Hear more in our Media Briefs episode with FlatPlan CEO Kieran Delaney, discussing how publishers can use the platform to build their own first-party data.
Like Joey from Friends, Apple has a reputation for not sharing, at least when it comes to customer information. That doesn’t mean that there’s not a first-party data play for publishers on Apple News. According to FlatPlan CEO Kieran Delaney there are clear pathways for publishers to funnel readers to their own properties and capture data.
The news app, launched by Apple in 2015, boasts somewhere in the region of 145 million active users a month across the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Users can access content from a range of news publishers for free, and premium content from newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, The New Yorker, and newcomer The Athletic, through a paid Apple News+ subscription.
Why Apple News?
For a long time, publishers have been trying to balance an increasingly fragmented media landscape and ever-tightening resources. Delaney explains that the old-school approach of trying to score as much traffic as possible – what he calls ‘spray and pray’ – no longer works. “It’s about quality traffic now, about loyalty and about data capture.”
Of course there are no silver bullets. Publishers need to develop a collection of content distribution strategies that deliver for them and Apple News offers two big advantages – scale and personalisation.
Preloaded on every iPhone, the potential to recommend and distribute content at scale is enormous. “Apple might not share first-party data with publishers, but it does use its own data to surface and personalise new content for users. That presents a powerful content discovery path for publishers,” says Delaney.
He uses the example of someone interested in health and wellness. “Apple News will understand if a reader has been searching in Safari for yoga… they’ll understand when a person first signs up… they’ll understand if you’re following similar publications. Even app store data can be mined to make Apple News recommendations.”
With a mix of algorithms and human editors, the Apple News app also delivers content contextually to users. “There are a really good mix of routes for readers to find your content without actively searching,” Delaney explains. “If you have an exclusive interview with an actor promoting a new movie, your interview could live below a story on the same movie from publications like the Telegraph.”
How to get on Apple News
One of the challenges for publishers looking to distribute their content on Apple News is that the platform is invite only. “They’re looking for high quality, original content,” says Delaney, highlighting the value of being in a curated environment alongside trusted, premium publishers.
Apple will still reach out to publishers, but usually when they are actively looking for content in a specific area. But Delaney says, for publications that would be a good fit, FlatPlan can actively pitch Apple. “We circulate it around the Apple team and the invite comes at that point.”
However, he says before looking for an invite, it’s worth checking that you’re not already on there. “Lots of publishers, weirdly, are already on Apple News. We talk to a lot that say, ‘We’re not on Apple News’ and we’re like, ‘No, you signed up a long time ago. There’s a login, so you’ve got your invite, it was just a long time ago’.”
First-party data
Delaney acknowledges that Apple is very much about privacy and doesn’t share user data externally. That doesn’t mean the platform can’t play a useful part in a first-party data strategy.
Using the discoverability element of Apple News, FlatPlan helps publishers attract and grow an audience of dedicated readers within the platform. “Once the loyalty is built, all of the articles that we deliver into Apple News have calls to action that drive readers out into a data-capture strategy.”
He describes Apple News as a way for publishers to get attention in an environment that people trust. “There’s this huge audience that lives within Apple News. Once you build loyalty, there’s this real opportunity to turn that loyal reader in Apple News into a newsletter subscriber, a website registration or an app download.”
For Delaney, it’s all about targeting readers in Apple News and then getting them across into your own environment. He says the secret lies in making sure you speak directly to the interests of individuals. “If you have a niche newsletter that is going to appeal to readers of a certain type of content, insert that call to action within that type of content.”
“At the start of every process we ask, ‘What do you need this to do?’ Then we build each article, as it lives within Apple News to work towards those needs. There’s such an opportunity to utilise that discoverability element. It’s there for the taking,” he says.
This Spotlight feature has been written in partnership with Apple News specialists FlatPlan. More than 145 million people read 5 billion articles on Apple News every month and FlatPlan empowers publishers to reach, retain and own these readers.
With clients ranging from Bauer Media to ITV News, FlatPlan handles all the heavy lifting including delivery, reporting and optimisation. FlatPlan is a no-code solution that works with any CMS, maximising the effectiveness of your content with tools built to scale audience growth quickly.
Learn more about FlatPlan on their website, or get a free content distribution plan.
