Is anyone else fed up to the MAX with the appalling ads in Apple News? I am an Apple One subscriber, yet my news feed is full of ads and rubbish ones at that. I counted NINE! big ugly ads in one New Scientist article. Any thoughts or suggestions, please
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple News+ Garbage Intrusive Advertising in Apple News+ stream
- Thread starter robfoll
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don’t like it as well. I use NextDNS to get rid of the ads. It is a free app and it works.
I hate that as an Apple One subscriber I have put up with the ads.
I have long since trained my vision to not see ads and cannot recall a single one after a session of browsing even if I wanted. That said, what I cannot refuse to see is their presence and it now seems that with every month the density of placement is increasing and apparently to the goal of putting one between each paragraph. Any use of Apple news is just a continual swipe of a finger to move over the inserted blob to the next actual text.
Flipbook is changing in the same way and I will probably dump both eventually.
Flipbook is changing in the same way and I will probably dump both eventually.
I'm on the trial version of Apple One and was dismayed to see that there are ads in Apple News+.
For me, the whole reason I'll pay for certain subscriptions is explicitly to not see advertising. I don't think I'll continue with Apple One when the trial ends.
For me, the whole reason I'll pay for certain subscriptions is explicitly to not see advertising. I don't think I'll continue with Apple One when the trial ends.
It's really a bummer. Even the New York Times app introduced ads for their paying customers earlier in the year. I'll happily pay more to avoid advertising, but it seems like the model is broken to the point that nobody can figure out a way to stay afloat otherwise. 
A question. Has anybody on here ever actually clicked on one of those ads other than by finger-check? Or actually ordered or researched something from an intrusive ad?
It’s those big Apple Spotlight blocks, and Editors Picks blocks that wind me up. I thought the whole point of Apple News is that you can choose your own subjects and just see the stuff you’re interested in. So why do they insist on showing us a load of stories that only they’re interested in?
I use the NextDNS app and followed the short directions on their website. It took less than 5 mins.
Last edited:
Exactly. I have never clicked an ad in Apple News and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve responded to an ad in any media in the last decade; however I may be the exception as 2023 global digital revenue was $602B — which is about 1.6X Apple 2023 revenue ($383B) so it represents a sizable growth opportunity.
Based on this, I can see why Apple is embracing ads in Apple News. However, given Apple’s stance on privacy and UX I don‘t understand why Apple‘s Ad playbook looks almost indistinguishable from Google’s, Facebook’s, or any amateur website for that matter. The only difference I’ve seen is user choice for receiving ”personalized” ads vs non-personalized ads.
While I see the revenue potential, I don’t see how Apple can pull this off in a way that can add materially to revenue without disproportionately eroding customer satisfaction ratings — given my belief that Apple customers are likely to view this ad push as antithetical to its very public privacy posture (I see this sentiment despite Apple honoring user choice of ”personalized” ads vs non-personalized ads iff most Apple customers share this middle-age man’s views on digital ads toxicity).
The benefit (and motivation) I see is potentially outsized contribution to profitability based on the assumption that incremental ad costs are approaching zero — so every ad dollar could effectively flow to the bottom line. If this holds, a 5% global digital ad revenue capture for Apple (~$30B) is equivalent to a 7-8% revenue increase which translates to a huge 15% boost to profits (2023 Net Profit was $97B, and assuming that ad serving cost is a very conservative 50% of ad revenue). This scenario would also increase net profit margin from 25% to 31% ([$97B x 25% + $30B x 50%] / $127B).
This is compelling math, so I get why it would be management malpractice not to pursue the opportunity; but I truly hope Apple has a more inspired way of going about it other than imitating and ultimately becoming the next Google, Facebook or ad revenue-addicted website riddled with intrusive advertising — which would be a tragedy and betrayal of creative and moral principles that endeared Apple to this old guy and perhaps others. I’m optimistic that Apple will avoid this me-too approach and trap, but I’m still looking for ad delivery innovations and other tangible signs that this optimism is justified.
Last edited:
Thanks for suggesting this @Apple_Robert . The recent NextDNS app reviews on the AppStore are mixed. Any idea why it seems to work for some but not others?
Are you using a particular NextDNS config? The recent reviews on the AppStore are mixed. Any idea why it seems to work for some but not others?
I'm not using any app for it. I go straight to https://nextdns.io/. It will have you download a configuration profile and you install it right in your settings app. You can turn it on and off in the DNS settings. You can also do this on a Mac. I'm not using any other special configurations other than what ever is default on there.