The New York Times has reportedly removed its articles from the Apple News app, citing that the relationship “does not fit” with what the paper calls a “healthy model.” The Times hopes instead to drive readers to paywalled content on its site.
Engadget reports the articles from the New York Times are no longer appearing in the Apple News apps which aggregates news from multiple different sources into one app.
Some have criticized the Apple News app, as unlike other news aggregators which redirect users to publishers’ websites to read articles, instead keeps readers inside the app. According to the New York Times, this goes against the newspaper’s goal of building direct relationships with paying readers.
Meredith Kopit Levien, the Times chief operating officer, wrote in a memo to employees:
Core to a healthy model between The Times and the platforms is a direct path for sending those readers back into our environments, where we control the presentation of our report, the relationships with our readers, and the nature of our business rules. Our relationship with Apple News does not fit within these parameters.
The NYT is one of the first media organizations to leave the Apple News app and was never part of the Apple News+ paid subscription service. Many publishers were reportedly hesitant to join the News+ subscriptions service at the time, with many feeling that tech firms such as Apple and Facebook were denying publishers advertising revenue.
An Apple spokesperson said that Apple News is “committed to supporting quality journalism through the proven business models of advertising, subscriptions, and commerce.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com