Apple is seeking to help publishers and advertisers to monetize Apple News, having introduced a new format where sponsored posts that look like standard articles can appear in news feeds within the app.
This new ad format is mentioned in a developer specification document, updated this month, for Apple News and noticed by Business Insider. The document explains how the sponsored posts will “display directly in the content feeds, inline with News articles”.
These posts should not, however, overly distract from the familiar experience of using the app. This is largely because the ads will appear in the same font as other Apple News articles. Each ad will have a small “sponsored” tag, but the listing of the sponsored advertiser name will be optional.
The first few of these sponsored posts could appear on devices updated to iOS 9.3 when the final version of that software arrives, which is likely to be next week. Apple News is a stock app on iOS 9 in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
