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>the most recent terms that Apple is offering to publishers ask for a cut of roughly half of the subscription revenue involved in the service

50% cut? And likely no access to customer data, with content embedded in a proprietary app outside of a news paper’s control... why would publishers agree to shutting off so many avenues for future innovation and strategic independence?

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Apple News does provide analytics, just not user-profile derived data. It’s more general than that, but is available across categories like loyalty metrics, vague demographics, etc—without associating that information to specific users.

But you’ll have to investigate for yourself if you’d like to know more since I don’t work or speak for them and just have some personal experience.

There are publishers (including the Washington Post, who are not signing on) that have decided that they have to transition from getting lots of revenue from a few people (often in one geography) to getting a little revenue from lots of people (all over the world). If this is your new strategy, Apple's offering might make sense.

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