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All the Magazines Available on Apple News+ in the US

At its unveiling of Apple News+, Apple claimed that the service gives subscribers access to 300 publications (the presenter actually said 3000 first, then quickly corrected himself). Weirdly, Apple doesn’t provide a list of these publications anywhere, and you can’t see them all until you subscribe. So kudos to Federico Viticci of Macstories, who took on the heroic task of documenting all the magazines available so far on Apple News+ (it’s even more heroic given that he’s Italian). He counted only 251 magazines and went to the effort of noting which use the Apple News Format (about half) and which are still in a PDF-like format that doesn’t reformat itself to small screens, rendering it harder to read on an iPhone. His number is likely lower than Apple’s because he didn’t count newspapers or digital-only publishers, and he suspects that Apple may still be adding titles. If you’re considering an Apple News+ subscription, this is a handy resource. If you haven’t voted in our Apple News+ survey yet, it’s still open.

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Comments About All the Magazines Available on Apple News+ in the US

Notable Replies

  1. Apparently, having half of them in Apple News Format is progress since most of the magazines in its predecessor, Texture, were just in PDF.

  2. What does it mean to say that a magazine is available in Apple News+? It could mean that there is a publication in News+ that contains all the articles, photos, etc. in a magazine published elsewhere. It could mean that there is a publication in News+ that contains some of the articles, photos, etc. in a magazine published elsewhere, but not necessarily all of them. It could mean that there is a publication in News+ that contains different versions of some or all of the articles, photos, etc. in a magazine published elsewhere. It could mean that the title of a magazine is in the News+ list of magazines, even if no content is associated with it.

    The first option is what everyone really wants, but that is not what Apple supplies. That greatly complicates answering the question of whether News+ is worth the price. How can you compare the magazines offered in News+ with the same-named magazines published by the owners elsewhere when the content is not the same and may vary from issue to issue?

    Suppose you read an article and decide to comment on it elsewhere. You would like to say something like author X says Y in the latest issue of magazine Z. If you read the article in News+, that is a risky thing to say, because the article you read may be different from what appears in the full-fledged print or digital version of the magazine. The title of the article may have been changed; so how do you refer to it? Clearly, you’re going to have to specify that you read it in News+. Or, you could go to the library and check the original publication to see if what you want to say about the article makes sense applied to the original.

  3. Does News+ contain the full MacWorld and MacLife? I have a subscription renewal for both coming up, but if I get the same magazines plus some, that doesn’t seem bad. I do want to support the Mac journalism community, so not sure this is the best way or keep the subscription.

  4. MacWorld is in ANF and appears to be complete. My library provides the Zinio version (PDF, I believe) so I could compare them if you wish.

    MacLife is in PDF format and appears to be a complete replica of the print magazine.

    All the magazines I’ve checked so far, in either ANF or PDF, appear to include everything in the print or e-zine versions.

  5. The first option is what everyone really wants, but that is not what Apple supplies.

    Apple supplies to News+ subscribers what publishers provide to Apple.

    That greatly complicates answering the question of whether News+ is worth the price. How can you compare the magazines offered in News+ with the same-named magazines published by the owners elsewhere when the content is not the same and may vary from issue to issue?

    I will continue to subscribe to the daily print and digital editions of the New York Times, The Economist and TidBITS. I will be happy to read the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, the LA Times, Martha Stewart Living, and many other publications I like to read but not enough to shell out a lot of money at newsstand or subscription prices. I am a very big fan of version of Apple News.

    You provide a link to the content if you’re quoting it online, and source it correctly if you’re quoting it in print. No sweat, no biggie. Just keep in mind that some online publications have limited shelf life for what they keep in their archives.

    Suppose you read an article and decide to comment on it elsewhere. You would like to say something like author X says Y in the latest issue of magazine Z. If you read the article in News+, that is a risky thing to say, because the article you read may be different from what appears in the full-fledged print or digital version of the magazine. The title of the article may have been changed; so how do you refer to it?

    I live in New York City so I only get to see that metro edition of the NYT. I don’t get to see or quote any local coverage or ads that run in the Chicago, LA, SF, etc. editions. The US version of the Economist is curated differently than the European editions. I’ve been subscribing to them for decades. Am I whining, gnashing my teeth or pulling out my hair about getting curated print editions? No way.

    Clearly, you’re going to have to specify that you read it in News+. Or, you could go to the library and check the original publication to see if what you want to say about the article makes sense applied to the original.

    If you link to something in Apple News, it can only be opened by someone with an iOS or Mac device, and there is only a window of a few days that the article is available. As a non subscriber to the NYer, I can only access a finite number of a very few articles per month. If someone sends me a link and I have reached the limit, I’m out of luck. I don’t have access to anything beyond the WSJ’s paywall.

    I’ve read that over 200,000 people signed up to fork over $9.99 for News+ in its first week, which is nothing to sneeze at. This number is likely to grow, especially if my suspicions about combo packages among other Apple services comes true. Publications that sell full subscriptions via News+ will split the revenue 50-50% with Apple. The publishing industry has been hemorrhaging circulation and advertising revenue for decades; they need every cent they can get. It’s why they signed up with Apple News and News+.

  6. What titles have people found to be curated or otherwise not complete in a significant way? The Wall Street Journal would seem to be the main one, with the New Yorker not being quite complete either. Anything else?

  7. The very first thing I did when I got my trial subscription to News+ was to compare its version of the New Yorker with the printed and digital versions that I had via subscription. They were not the same. A cursory look showed that the articles were pretty much the same but the titles had been inexplicably, and radically, altered. The table of contents was very different. The whole “Goings On About Town” section was missing. While primarily of interest to NYC residents, I occasionally skim it to see what is going on in the arts there, even though I live in Texas. Someone planning a trip to NYC would likely find that section of interest. The comics archive that is in the digital edition, but not the print edition, was missing in News+. The cartoon contest was missing.

  8. BTW, I can get the digital edition of the New Yorker in its unaltered entirety from my local library, for free. So if the New Yorker doesn’t want to discourage people from subscribing, they shouldn’t let libraries give it away. I get to keep the digital copy from my library for as long as I wish. Only the storage on my iPad limits me with hundreds of magazines.

  9. A New York visitor can find that section on the newyorker.com web site.

    Anybody who hasn’t had a subscription to the New Yorker before won’t know or probably care all that much that they are missing some very minor sections of one subscription in a large package.

  10. The New York Times’ T Magazine frequently runs different first covers. “It’s a split run, or split copy: different versions of a New York Times print product distributed throughout the country. It is the fourth time this year that T has run more than one cover image. The photo shoot, directed by Boots Riley, is paired with an essay by Ayana Mathis on the variety and resonance of black male voices in American letters, and it is anchored by a two-page spread — or “reveal,” in magazine parlance. For 30 playwrights, poets and novelists assembled in a stately library by a revered underground M.C.-turned-filmmaker, one cover simply would not do.”

    So does the New York Times Magazine. “Split-run covers are also used several times a year by The New York Times Magazine. In June, the “Love City” issue ran with 24 different covers: one for every hour of a day, with each photo featuring a different couple. It was a celebration of the diversity and ubiquity of love in New York.”

    “Unless there is a geographic preference, the idea is to evenly distribute the versions of the magazine to seven national print sites: Chicago; Concord, Calif.; Dallas; two in Los Angeles; Seattle; as well as the New York Times printing plant in College Point, Queens. Downstream, the run is sorted further. The goal is concerted randomness.” And “Could two neighbors get different covers? “The likelihood is that they are getting different covers on the same block,” Ms. McCauley said.”

    I highly recommend reading the whole article:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/reader-center/split-run-different-cover-magazine.html

  11. There are 100 local print editions of the New Yorker four different Texas print editions. There are eight New York regional editions, and since I’m a bridge and tunnel NYC city gal all my life, if I subscribed to the print edition I’d get could possibly include both the metro and outer borough editions:

    https://mediamaxnetwork.com/publications/the-new-yorker/

  12. Do all those editions of the New Yorker have different tables of contents, or just different local advertising?

  13. Some do, some don’t. A typical signature in a magazine consists of sheet of paper trimmed and folded to yield 8 pages, and different editions will carry at least one unique signature. Magazines have different editorial policies; a fashion magazine like Vogue will usually run large sets of unbroken ads because they are as interesting to the reader as the article editorial. A magazine that’s dependent and heavy on copy, like the New Yorker, will have a much higher edit to ad ratio because they have a policy that every ad appears adjacent to at least some editorial.

  14. To get back to my previous question, are there are any publications other than the New Yorker and the Wall Street Journal that people have found to be missing notable content in comparison with familiar paper versions?

  15. Here’s another issue to consider: magazines that arrive in News+ late. Take, for example, The Week. It typically comes out on Friday, at least the digital edition does, and it gathers together all the major news stories of the week, summarizing them, reporting on what the major news services said, giving a variety of opinions, etc. You read it to catch up on current events. Who wants to read three week old news?

    The latest issue in News+ appears to be the March 29 issue. Since that issue came out there have been two more, the April 5 issue and today’s April 12 issue that just arrived (I subscribe to the digital magazine).

  16. It takes time to compare upwards of 300 magazines, Adam. :wink:

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