Media

As clicks dry up for news sites, could Apple’s news app be a lifeline?

THE SCOOP

Like many digital publishers, The Daily Beast was struggling at the end of 2023. Facebook, long a primary driver of clicks to the publication, had turned away from news. Search traffic had become increasingly erratic, as Google adjusted its algorithm to combat a flood of AI-powered junk. The site’s paid subscription program had atrophied since Donald Trump left office.

But it had a new lifeline: Apple.

Late last year, the digital news tabloid (where I worked from 2018 to 2021 as a media reporter) entered into Apple’s partnership program, called Apple News+. The program made all of the publication’s buzziest exclusives available to paying Apple subscribers, behind Apple’s own paywall. And the impact for a mid-sized news site was immediate, putting the Beast on track to make between $3-4 million in revenue this year from Apple News alone — more than its own standalone subscription program, and without much additional cost.

The Beast is hardly alone in its increased reliance on the iOS news aggregator. The free version of Apple News has been a source of audience attention for news publishers since it launched in 2015. But while many publishers have come to the conclusion that traffic has less business value than they once thought, they’re still desperate for revenue. Executives at companies including Condé Nast, Penske Media, Vox, Hearst, and Time all told Semafor that Apple News+ has come to represent a substantial stream of direct revenue.

A spokesperson for Time said that Apple News has become “one of our most important partners and delivers 7-figures of revenue for TIME annually,” adding that the publication garnered 5 million unique visitors from Apple News last month. The revenue and audience numbers have been similar at major Condé Nast publications, including Wired and Vanity Fair. As significant as the partnership has been for the Daily Beast, it’s been even bigger for its larger corporate sister Dotdash Meredith, which runs the portfolio of magazines purchased by Daily Beast parent company IAC in 2021.

“Apple News has been a growing traffic source for all our properties, particularly DotDash/Meredith,” IAC chair Barry Diller said in an email. “We only have a paywall at DailyBeast, not that there are enough ‘payers.’”

Hans Schroeder is NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution

At what age do we stop finding new music? Which TV shows got their finale right, and which didn’t? Which movies popularized (or tarnished) baby names?

For the answers to these questions, check out Stat Significant — a free weekly newsletter that features data-centric essays about movies, music, TV, and more. Understand the data behind pop-culture you love — subscribe for free here.

⁛ News

Change of scenery: A year into his career as a political online content creator, Tucker Carlson is making changes. Semafor reported this week that the conservative pundit’s longtime producer, Justin Wells, is leaving his position with the former Fox News star’s streaming show. Carlson told Semafor that the split was amicable, and a source told us that Wells was planning on working with Carlson on other projects. But his departure is one of a few recent signs that Carlson wants to shake up the format of his digital show. During a recent interview with New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, taped from Carlson’s dining room table, the conservative broadcaster said he was displeased with the studio he’d built.

Stay tuned: NBC News is not counting itself out for the 2024 presidential debates. As we reported on Friday night, the network was left scrambling after the Biden and Trump campaigns agreed to participate in debates with CNN and ABC News on Wednesday — before the Biden campaign had even received a formal debate invitation from NBC. The Biden team said last week that the president would only participate in two debates, and was surprised and frustrated to learn that NBC had agreed to a third presidential debate with Trump, who has said he would participate in additional televised contests.

Campaign and network officials both conveyed to Semafor that the network is not considering the debates settled, and still believes that one of the existing debates could fall through. NBC News officials are also monitoring the status of the vice presidential debate. Trump, lacking a running mate, has said his campaign will participate in a contest with Fox News, while Biden’s campaign agreed to one hosted by CBS.

Psaki’s pity: The former White House press secretary said she didn’t hate Fox correspondent/foil Peter Doocy: “I didn’t hate him at all. I feel like it would be a real mind-bend to work for Fox. It feels like a traumatizing experience he has to live through every day.”

Down under: Fox and News Corp. chair Lachlan Murdoch’s attachment to his native Sydney is becoming the stuff of legend: We’ve heard some surprise from Northern Hemisphere executives that it’s considered a convenient locale for a corporate retreat.

⁋ Publishing

Spectacle: With Jeff Zucker’s bid for its parent company dead, the venerable British magazine The Spectator could be back on the market — and there’s chatter in the newsroom that Rupert Murdoch, who has long coveted the title, could be back in the mix. Spec Chairman Andrew Neil, however, waved us off the chatter with characteristic mildness.

Slow G/Oing: G/O Media is continuing to cut costs as it explores selling off its remaining digital media properties. The company told staff this month that it was ending its subscription to Shutterstock, the stock photography licensing service, just a few weeks after its business site Quartz ended a yearlong partnership to syndicate Associated Press articles. In recent months, G/O has sold off several of its brands, including the Onion, Jezebel, the A.V. Club, Deadspin, and Lifehacker. And last month, Semafor reported that Ross Morales Rocketto, the co-founder of the progressive campaign organization Run For Something, had inquired about purchasing some of G/O’s outlets.

• The climate case for Biden’s new China tariffs.
• Why Biden-Trump ditched the Commission on Presidential Debates.
• A Nigerian beach developer expands to Gambia after its Lagos demolition.