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Apple reportedly creating a subscription news service

The company will base the paid service on magazine app Texture, which it bought last month, Bloomberg reports.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
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Apple bought Texture last month.

Texture

You may be willing to pay Apple every month for music or iCloud storage, but would you pay it for news?

The tech giant is planning to launch a subscription news service following its purchase of magazine app Texture last month, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Texture is a kind of Netflix for magazines, which provides access to around 200 publications for $9.99 per month. Apple cut around 20 people from Texture team shortly after buying the app in March, people familiar with the company's plans told Bloomberg.

Apple now reportedly plans to integrate the remaining Texture staff into the existing Apple News team and launch a premium service within a year. Publishers will receive a cut of the profits from the service.

A subscription news service would beef up Apple's services, which include storage through iCloud and music streaming through Apple Music. The company created Apple Music after buying headphone maker and streaming provider Beats in 2014. The creation of a subscription news service based on Texture would follow a similar model.

Apple didn't respond to request a comment.

"We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of internet software and services said in a statement after the company bought Texture last month.