Apple News’ head of business has stepped down following disappointing subscriber numbers, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Liz Schimel, who previously worked at Conde Nast, joined Apple News in 2018 in an attempt to create a news-focused subscription service, but following less than stellar performance, has left the company.
According to the report, “people familiar with the move” say that Schimel’s job was to oversee relationships with both publishers and advertisers during her time with the company.
Under the Cupertino firm’s current structure, Apple News+ was part of Services, overseen by Peter Stern. Schimel reported to Stern, as well as Lauren Kern, who served as Editor in Chief at Apple News.
Tim Cook told journalists that Apple News was used by more than 100 million people around the world, but the company did not reveal figures on the News+ premium subscription.
Last April, Apple said that 200,000 people had signed up to the service, though many of those were likely free trials. The real subscriber count is reportedly much lower than that.
Apple has struggled to promote its News+ service or promote users into subscribers, and it appears as though the company has gone quiet on development.
We’ve seen little new features, changes, or announcements and few publishers have signed up to the platform.
Apple is reportedly working on a bundle of its subscription services to encourage users to stay loyal to the Apple ecosystem, but whether News+ will be part of this remains to be seen.
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