Transcript
[ Music ]
>> Alright.
Good afternoon, everyone.
[ Applause ]
Welcome, and thank you for
coming to this session.
My name is Ryan Griggs, and I
work on the Apple News team,
and I am thrilled to be here
this afternoon to talk to you
about some of the great things
you can do in Apple News,
how to get set up, and
some best practices.
So we have a lot to cover
today, and so I wanted to go
through a quick agenda
so we know where we are
in the presentation as
we, as we go through it.
So first we'll do a quick intro
to News to get an understanding
of sort of why News exists,
and what it's all about.
We'll also take a quick look
at the app to get some context
as far as where your,
your content
as far as where your,
your content
and your publication
will show up.
And then next we'll
learn how to set
up your channel using News
Publisher, which is the tool
that we use to manage
content in Apple News.
Then we'll do a quick
overview of RSS,
and then we'll dive a bit
deeper on Apple News Format.
Then we'll also talk about how
to publish articles
in Apple News.
We have a few different
options and make it really easy
to author and then deliver
content into our system.
We'll talk about how to
make money off your content.
Talk about analytics
and insights.
Specifically, what's
available to you
as an Apple News Format
Publisher, and then talk
about a few best practices
for making your publication
successful in Apple News.
So, first, let's do a quick
intro to the Apple News app.
So News was launched with
iOS9 last year with the goal
of delivering the best stories
from the best publishers,
and then personalizing
it for you.
and then personalizing
it for you.
And so News is built right into
iOS, which means it's available
to anyone with an iOS device
as long as they live in one
of the three countries News is
available in, and so News is
in the U.S., U.K. and
Australia right now.
And so one of the big parts
of News is Apple News Format,
which is our JSON
based document format.
It makes it possible to create
some amazing very engaging
experiences within
your articles.
And so we'll talk a bit
more about that later.
But in order to understand
how cool Apple News Format is,
I wanted to show you a few
articles that are good examples
of what you can do with it.
So this one is an
article from "Wired,"
and we'll actually
scroll through this
and take a look at
what's in there.
You can see there's a little
bit of parallax as we scroll.
There's beautiful imagery.
This is a photo mosaic.
Can tap in on the photos,
swipe through them.
It's really great,
immersive, and beautiful.
And you'll also notice, too,
that as we scroll, this is,
And you'll also notice, too,
that as we scroll, this is,
of course, a, a "Wired" article.
This looks like "Wired".
And so we give you the
tools to make your articles
and your channel
look like your brand.
So here's another
one from "Bloomberg."
Very different look to this,
but, again, very striking
with some beautiful photography.
You see we have some of
type on top of the images.
As you scroll, some really
beautiful bold topography.
Great use of parallax here.
It really shows a lot of emotion
and depth in this article.
So another great example.
Show you one more.
This one in iPad.
You can really do a lot of
cool stuff with Apple News,
and this is an example of
a publisher of the BBC who,
who really created something
at the beginning of the article
that makes you want
to read further
and see what other great
stuff you might find.
So Apple News Format gives you
a lot of really cool tools.
So let's take a quick
look at the News app.
Just understand where
your content shows up.
So News is organized
into five separate tabs.
So first we have For You.
For You is a personalized feed
of articles that deliver content
that you're interested in based
upon what you're following
and what you're reading.
And it's got a huge update,
as you saw yesterday.
We have a completely new
redesign and all new look
and feel but also the concept of
sections, which include things
like trending, topic groups
based upon what you're following
in News, and then featured
stories which allow our editors
to find some of the
most beautiful,
engaging Apple News
format articles
and feature them
right in for you.
Favorites.
This is where your
publication goes
when a user taps the Plus
(+) button to favorite it,
and it allows you just to return
to your publication at any time.
And then we have Explorer.
This is where users will
go to find new channels
and then new topics, and so we
have topics and news in addition
to publications, and these
are essentially combinations
of articles from
different publishers all
around a specific topic.
So you can follow
things like sports
So you can follow
things like sports
or heavy metal or
whatever you like.
Then, of course, we have Search.
We have hundreds of
thousands of topics in News,
and you can search for topics
and publications
in the News app.
And then, finally, your
articles can end up in Saved.
If a user starts reading
them but feels like they want
to finish reading it
later, and you can also look
at your history and clear
it if you like as well.
So that's how News is
organized within the app.
So during this session, we're
going to talk about some
of the best practices when
publishing news and how
to get set up, but, first,
let's discuss your publication
and how it shows up in News.
So publications in News
are called channels.
So what is a channel?
Well, this is what a
channel looks like,
and this is the one
we're going to create
in News today in
this presentation.
So channels represent your
publication in News are sort
of like your home page.
Articles you publish
appear in your channel,
and it's where users can
return to to engage more deeply
and directly specifically
with your brand.
and directly specifically
with your brand.
So a good example for, of
a channel would be, like,
a magazines, a newspaper,
or a blog.
They're very customizable.
So you can really make them
reflect the look of your brand.
So you can do things
like customize the logo,
add a cover image, which
we'll talk about a bit later
and customize sections
to organize your content.
And you can create
more than one channel.
So if you have more than one
blog or more than one newspaper,
you can have a separate
channel for each one.
They can be based on Apple News
format or RSS, and you can link
to them just using
a regular link.
So how do we set up a
channel in News Publisher,
or to set up a channel
in Apple News?
You go to our web, online web
tool called News Publisher.
And so News Publisher
makes it really easy
to manage your presence
in Apple News.
It lets you do things like
set up and configure options
for your channels to
make sure it looks like
and works like you want it to.
It lets you assign roles to
people in your organization.
It lets you view analytics, set
up reports, and gain insight
on how your articles and
your channel is performing.
It also helps you set
up delivery of content
and helps you manage it.
It even lets you create Apple
News format articles right
from News Publisher, and we'll
do a demo of that shortly.
So a few things to think
about before you sign
up for Apple News.
You want to consider who will,
who's going to manage
the account.
Think about people like interns.
They eventually leave, and
you don't want to leave access
to your account to an intern
that won't be here
in a few months.
So make sure you give
access to someone
who will be with
you for a while.
So a common problem
that we have.
You also want to use a real
e-mail address that you own.
Sounds like an obvious thing,
but we actually communicate
with you via this e-mail
address if we find issues with,
for example, your RSS
feed or what we're finding
in your Apple News
format articles.
And so we want to be able to
use that to get a hold of you.
And also think about
international distribution.
So News is available in the
U.S., U.K., and Australia.
You want to make sure
that you've got rights
to deliver whatever
content, images,
etc. in Apple News
in these territories.
And so the easiest way to sign
up to publish in Apple News is
to go to our developer page or
just go to Apple.com/news scroll
to the bottom, and then
click on Sign-Up Now.
That will take you
directly to News Publisher.
So News Publisher
requires an Apple ID.
If you don't have one already,
then you'll be prompted
to set one up, although I
suspect most people here
have one.
And then once you've signed
up to publish in Apple News,
the News Publisher icon
will show up in iCloud next
to your other icons so you can
get back to it really quickly.
It's one of the great things
about using Apple ID is
that when you use the same one
as on your iOS device
it allows you
to easily preview articles
before you publish right
on your device.
So this is what News
Publisher looks like.
We're not going to dive into
it just yet, but we're going
to start up by talking about
a few of the things you need
to start up by talking about
a few of the things you need
when you're setting
up your channel.
So every channel, no
matter if it's using RSS
or Apple News format,
needs a few things.
One, it needs sections; two,
it needs a channel logo;
and it needs a cover image.
And so let's talk about the best
practices for a few of these.
So, first, sections.
So sections make it possible
to group your articles by type.
So, like, entertainment,
top stories, or sports.
You can have a lot
of sections in News,
but we really recommend
only having three to four
because essentially we
don't see people scrolling
to find more channels that are
off screen, and you want them
to fit on an iPhone
screen at rest.
And for the same reason as
using only as many sections
as you need, keep
the name short.
You don't want to
have really long names
that push your other
sections off the screen.
It's important to note that
the first section is always
the default.
So when users come to your
channel or return to it,
this is what they
will see first.
this is what they
will see first.
It's sort of like
the first impression
that they'll, that
they will see.
Another really important
note is when Apple News goes
and builds the For You feed,
it's going to look at articles
that are in your default first
section in your channel and pull
from there and not
your other sections.
So if you want to have your
articles potentially show up in
For You, for, in user's Apple
News app, you need to make sure
that you're publishing them
to the default section.
So for the channel logo,
the channel logo is
essentially an image
of your publication's logo.
And so for maximum
legibility, you want your logo
to be horizontal
text on one line,
use transparent background
with no fill.
If you don't use a transparent
background, you're going to end
up with a logo that looks
something like this.
Something that we see fairly
often, and we, we need to,
to reach out to publishers
to fix.
Also avoid using
just raw photos.
They're going to end
up being really small
in the various places
that we use them in News,
in the various places
that we use them in News,
and sometimes we end up just
being a, a grey box as well
because they don't
have transparency.
We recommend having a logo
that's 256 pixels tall,
and then not more than
10 to 1 aspect ratio,
but don't make it any
wider than you need to.
Otherwise, it will make
it incredibly small
in some places like 4U Feeds.
If you can, avoid
things like copyrights
and trademarks alongside
your logo.
In many places, the logos
are very small on the screen,
and they just get lost
in the [inaudible].
And then, finally, with
promotional text or URL's,
you typically want to avoid
using those if you can.
The promotional text will be
very hard to read in places,
and just makes your
logo smaller.
And then URL's set
up the expectation
that they will be tappable,
which, of course, they won't be.
And so this is what a channel
logo looks like in the 4U Feed.
And so this is a
really important place
for your channel logo to look
great because the vast majority
of our users spend time in 4U,
and so you want to make sure
of our users spend time in 4U,
and so you want to make sure
that your logo looks great
and is highly legible here.
So your logo also appears
in your channel tile,
and so the channel tile is a
combination of the channel logo
and what we call a cover image.
And a channel tile is
essentially your billboard
within News to bring readers
in, and this is what it looks
like in favorites, but it's also
featured in several other places
in News, including our
on-boarding experience.
This is where users first
enter News and make decisions
about who they're going to
follow in the Apple News app.
And so this is going to be
your only representation,
especially for those users
who don't know anything
about your publication.
You want to make sure
that you have a great logo
and a great cover image
that's representative
of what your brand is all
about and is super engaging.
We also have channel
tiles in Explorer
where editors can feature them,
and we have recommendations come
in the For You feed
occasionally.
So it's a really important way
to drive users to sign up for,
So it's a really important way
to drive users to sign up for,
to follow your channel
and to read it.
So to make the cover image look
as great as possible, please,
please submit a high-quality,
high-resolution images.
We recommend 600 x 600 pixels.
You can choose two
paths for this.
You can either do
a static cover,
which means that it
will always be the same.
This is great for brands
that have a really
identifiable logo mark, or an,
an image that users will
recognize when they see it,
but you can also choose to have
a dynamic cover image as well.
This is great if you want users
returning to your channel,
and they see your tile,
and it actually pulls image
from articles in your feed,
and so it stays very up to date
and dynamic with what's
happening in your channel.
So when you're signing up
to publish in Apple News,
you'll eventually
see this screen
where you can choose whether to
sign up for Apple News format
or whether to use RSS.
So we're going to talk
about each of these.
Let's briefly talk about RSS.
So when does it make
sense to use RSS?
So News supports displaying
articles from your RSS feed
if you have one, and it's
an appropriate solution
if you already have a website
or you already have an RSS feed,
and you want to get your content
into News really quickly.
But, ultimately, we only
really recommend using RSS
as a stepping stone to
get to Apple News format.
It's important to note that the
vast majority of articles read
in Apple News are using
Apple News format,
and so they're really engaging.
They have animations and
parallax and all of the things
that Apple News format allows.
And so if you're not using
Apple News format, it's a,
it's not a great comparison.
So we, it's always best
to use Apple News format.
But if you do need to use Apple
News format, or if you do need
to use RSS, these are some
of the features that,
that RSS supports.
Gives you the ability
to, to pull in images,
headlines, and excerpts.
We also show a preview
page of RSS articles
that it pulls from your feed.
And so this allows
those to, those previews
And so this allows
those to, those previews
to load really quickly
so we don't have
to load from your web page.
We host the RSS excerpt.
So when you use a [inaudible]
article, it loads immediately.
And then, of course,
you ultimately will host your
web page if users choose to tap
through to your web page.
So there's some best
practices for RSS.
You want to make your
preview full and enticing.
If you make it really short,
the odds are users will tap in,
see that it's only a sentence
or two, and then go back out
and look for one of the many
Apple News format articles
that offer a full experience.
So use long form, full
text RSS when you can,
and avoid links to
unrelated content.
Things like boilerplates,
article footers,
terms and conditions, user
agreements, privacy policies.
You don't really need
that in your preview,
and it just clutters up the
experience and takes away
from the simplicity and
the beauty of your article.
And then Apple News
already has built
And then Apple News
already has built
into some great sharing features
that users are accustomed
to using to share your
content is you don't need
to include links like tweet
this or like this on Facebook.
The app already takes
care of that, and, again,
it just adds noise
to your article.
Make sure your actual web page
is optimized for Safari on iOS.
The worst thing you can
have is a user follows
through the preview,
goes to your web page,
and then they have a big
desktop formatted website.
Then, finally, similar to
a point I made earlier,
make sure you provide a
dedicated point of contact.
So something happens
with your RSS feed,
and we're having trouble getting
your content to appear in News,
we want to be able
to reach out to you.
So when you first set up your
channel, your RSS channel,
you can configure your feeds,
and you do that by setting
up your sections that
we talked about earlier.
So you start out with
your default section.
This is the one that
For You pulls from,
and you can customize
that default section.
You can change the name, and
then there's a field to set
up your RSS feed, you can have
multiple RSS feeds for sections,
up your RSS feed, you can have
multiple RSS feeds for sections,
per section if you like.
And so this is what it looks
like once you have it populated.
You can reorder them, and change
them later if you like as well.
And so once you're up and
running and approved to go
in Apple News, this is what your
News Publisher interface will
look like.
You'll see we have a couple
tabs there where you can return
and manage your sections,
manage your channel info, etc.
But, ultimately, you want to
up, upgrade to Apple News format
as soon as you can, and so
we have a big blue button
at the top that makes
that really easy.
Once you click that, you can
just click OK in the dialogue,
and that'll move you on
to Apple News format.
So what can you do
with Apple News format?
Why is it so great?
Well, first, we provide a, a
robust content delivery network.
We have points of
presence around the world
that ensures lightning
fast loading and no delay.
Nothing will ensure people
won't read your article
like an article that
doesn't load.
We also supply rich analytics,
and we also automatically
optimize for each device.
Apple News format is really
focused on author wants
and having it look great on
any device automatically.
We provide simple but
powerful monetization tools.
We have a dedicated Apple News
editorial team that's just
looking for great
content every single day,
and that's a huge
opportunity for you
if you're creating really
engaging cool stuff.
We also have built-in
cross promotion.
So if publish an article
using Apple News format,
it's really easy to have at
the bottom of it, more articles
from your channel and related
articles from other channels.
It's a great way to
drive additional traffic.
Apple News format itself
supports lots of cool features
like animations,
parallax, galleries,
videos, photo mosaics.
It's incredibly powerful
and really easy
to add these elements
to your articles.
We also support dynamic
text sizing.
If you have that set in iOS
for improved legibility,
If you have that set in iOS
for improved legibility,
and then we're also
very accessible.
We have great support for
the accessibility features
in iOS like voice over.
And we have lots of
options for delivery
of content into Apple News.
So lots of advantages to
using Apple News format.
And so we clicked our
blue button in RSS,
and we've been approved
to use Apple News format.
And so we've got our channel
ready, but now we need
to deliver an article into Apple
News so we can take a look at it
and make sure that it's
formatted correctly and,
and is working as it should,
and so you can do
that a couple ways.
You can do that by creating
an article using the built-in
authoring tool, or you can
deliver an article via the API.
And so we'll talk about both
of those in more detail later,
but let's say that you've
delivered your article.
We'll take a moment to look
at it, and then we'll go
through a pending state.
And then once you're
ready to go,
you'll see at the top
available in News status,
you'll see at the top
available in News status,
and that means your channel
is live, ready to go.
You're starting, you're ready
to start publishing
articles in Apple News.
And so once you're approved,
you're going to notice
that you're going to have more
tabs there tha were available
to RSS, to your RSS channel.
And so there are
some new ones here,
and some of these
work differently
than the RSS sections.
So one example is the
sections tab itself.
You can see here that there
are no longer RSS feeds
that are associated
with each section.
You don't need your
RSS feed anymore
because Apple News format
handles all of that.
And, of course, you
can reorder them,
rename them here as
you like as well.
We also have the
ability to manage members
and roles within Apple News.
So if you work in a multi-person
team, it's really easy
to invite new users,
assign roles from admin,
which has full access
to everything
in News Publisher all the
way down to sales people
who only access analytics and
view articles or just viewers
who can only view
the content in it.
So very powerful.
So a few best practices when
you're using Apple News format.
First, you want to make sure
you're using appropriate
subject matter.
You want to avoid
things like click bait
or misleading headlines.
It's really not what
we look for in News.
News is also not
allowed to be created,
to be used as a marketing
platform.
We really encourage you to
create content that's going
to engage, inform,
and delight users.
And then take advantage of
Apple News format capabilities.
So use things like the animation
and the beautiful galleries
and imagery that
really draws users in
and makes them come back
and makes them read longer.
And use analytics
to your advantage.
Pay attention to what
users are reading,
and maybe they're reading a
lot of one type of article
or a specific article that
you've, that you wrote,
and they may want
to, you may want
to write more articles
like that.
Then, of course, you
want to monetize,
which we'll talk
about in a minute.
So three ways to get your
content into Apple News.
One is web authoring,
another is Apple News API,
and the third is plug-ins.
And so, first, let's
talk about web authoring.
So News Publisher supports
a rich drag-and-drop web
authoring experience.
The output's beautiful, simple,
Apple News Format
articles directly
to your channel in News.
So rather than showing
more slides,
let me show you a quick demo,
show you how easy it is.
Alright. So this is News
Publisher, and if you want
to make a new Apple
News Format article,
you can just click create
article, and then we land
in the authoring interface.
And so just a quick
tour of this.
We have our standard
toolbar for iCloud up here.
You have undo, redo.
We have a styling palette
that lets you change the look
and feel of each article.
We have a Publish button
that lets you publish
directly to your channel.
We also have a Help Link up
here, which is really useful
and very rich, very deep
if you're having any issues
with publishing in Apple News.
And then we've got
our header image
and the content of
the article below.
So let's start off
by making an article.
So let's start off
by making an article.
So for our header
image, we can choose
to have an image
with a text on top.
You can have the
text below the image,
or we can have a text-only
article with no image.
So let's go and create
an article
that has a beautiful image.
OK. And so let's go, and let's
bring in a nice header image.
Alright. So that looks nice.
Let's add a nice
title and a subtitle.
Let's go to an extra space here,
and then, and have the author,
let's put that in
the right spot, too.
And let's add some body text.
Rather than typing it, just
do a quick copy, paste.
Alright. So now we've
got the beginnings
of a beautiful Apple
News format article.
So you can do a lot of things
to make it really
rich and engaging.
So it's really easy to
add a link, for example,
if we can just, let's
go grab our link here,
if we can just, let's
go grab our link here,
and we can just select the text
we want to turn into a link,
and then we get a
nice pop over here.
We can just click the link
button, paste the URL in,
hit OK, and we've got a link.
And so you can also
add rich text.
For example, if we
just select some text,
we can make it italic.
We can also make it bold.
And so pull quotes are one
of the really cool things
about Apple News, and
so let's make one here.
Let's grab a piece of text,
and let's add it here,
and then if we select
this text, we can make it
into a pull quote
just with one click.
And so that really makes it
stand out and look beautiful.
Now let's do some, some work
on the styling of this article.
So if we click on
the Styling Palette,
we can very quickly jump
between different styles.
Here's modern.
A nice sanserif.
Here's bold, and let's
do classic for this one.
I think classic looks,
looks really nice.
OK, and let's mess around
with the colors a bit.
You can go with a darker
format if you'd like,
You can go with a darker
format if you'd like,
or you can try different
colors, but let's go with a blue
since that looks pretty nice.
It's also really easy to add
images in the body of your text.
So we just grab a
couple of images
from the desktop and drag it in.
The images pop right in, and
you can even add a caption
just by typing right
into the article.
So that looks pretty good.
I think we're ready to publish.
So we can just go up
to the Publish button,
and then remember what
I said about publishing
to your default section if you
wanted to show up in For You.
So let's publish it to Top
Stories, which is our default,
and then let's also
publish to Honeycrisp
because that's what
this article is about.
And we click publish, and
that article will be published
into Apple News.
Alright. So you can see
it's really easy to publish,
and this is what the articles
will look like on your devices.
Beautiful, formatted
perfectly for iPhone
Beautiful, formatted
perfectly for iPhone
and iPad automatically.
You can see at the
bottom we even have a more
from this channel
automatically added
to the end of this article.
So a few things to think
about when you're
authoring using the web tool.
First, choose a striking
cover image.
Great imagery drives
users into your article.
Use a consistent methodology
for fonts and for themes.
You want to have an
identity for your channel
that you follow regularly
without changing it up on users.
Try to include images
throughout the article.
This is really true for any
Apple News format article.
Use imagery and, and multimedia.
Also try to use pull
quotes and embedded links.
You know, use all of the
tools at your disposal
in the authoring tool.
Alright. So that's
the authoring tool.
Let's talk a little
bit about the API.
We're just going to
touch on this briefly.
So Apple News offers
a RESTful HTTP API.
This is great for medium
to large publishers
with existing CMS'
that they want
to plug directly
into Apple News.
It provides functions like read,
list, create, update, search,
and also offers plug in support.
So if you want to
know more about this,
if you have specific questions
or are having issues getting set
up with the Apple News
API, please attend the labs
that we have a lab today, and we
also have one on Friday as well.
We'll have Apple News
engineers on hand
to answer any questions
you might have.
Alright. Third, let's
talk about plug-ins,
the third way you can get
content into Apple News.
So WordPress is one of
the plug-ins we offer.
We actually offer
several of them,
and the published Apple News
plug in is a really easy way
to publish articles directly
into News from WordPress.
It's also one of the most
popular integrations we
have today.
And so this is what it
looks like in WordPress.
As a, WordPress is a nice
simple authoring interface,
and there's an Apple News
section off to the right side
that gives you many
features you need to publish
in Apple News including
choosing which section,
adding a pull quote,
and, and other features.
So it's really simple
and very integrated.
We also support publishing
directly from Drupal,
We also support publishing
directly from Drupal,
which is a content
management software system
that many websites that you
use every day are powered by.
And so you can publish directly
from Drupal and Apple News.
And today we also announced that
Craft cms is also integrating
with Apple News, and
you can publish directly
from their system.
It's very exciting.
And then next, I'm really
thrilled to announce
in this session that we have a
brand-new Apple News integration
with Squarespace.
And so Squarespace,
as you guys know,
helps anyone build
beautiful websites online.
The Apple News integration lets
Squarespace customers really
seamlessly publish into Apple
News and share their brand
with the world, and, of
course, because of Squarespace,
it's really beautiful
and easy to use.
So, it's a really
exciting integration.
We're thrilled to, to
have them on board.
So integrations of these four
platforms make it really easy
to publish into Apple News using
the tools you already use every
to publish into Apple News using
the tools you already use every
day instantly.
So I really urge
you to go check them
out if you use any of these.
So next let's talk about
making money off your articles
and channels in News.
So News makes it really easy
to generate revenue using ads.
Now as a publisher,
you're able to sell ads
in a few key places
-- in your channel,
in articles, and
between articles.
And so one of the great
things about monetizing
in Apple News are
the business terms.
So if you sell your own ads,
you get to keep 100
percent of the revenue.
And for the inventory
that you didn't sell,
you can have Apple backfill, and
keep 70 percent of the revenue.
So it's a, a really great,
a great way to make money.
One note, though, is that ads
in Apple News are only available
for articles delivered
by API at this time.
So a quick look at
some of the ad formats
that are available
in News today.
So we've got standard, we've got
double, we have large ad format,
So we've got standard, we've got
double, we have large ad format,
mrects in articles,
interstitial.
This is when you're swiping
between articles
in your channel.
We also have sponsored
native ads.
And then video ads, if
you have video content,
and this is what they
look like on iPad.
So they're really simple, and
they really enhance the content.
So a few things to think
about when you're
monetizing and using ads.
Avoid some common mistakes.
Keeping, keeping an
eye on the settings
that you have for your ads.
If, for example, you've booked
a campaign for, for double ads,
and you have mrects
in your articles.
Those, obviously, aren't going
to deliver, and so you want
to make sure that you're not
making any little mistakes
like that.
You also should enable backfill
where you're not planning
on selling ads, but you should
really sell your own ads
if you can.
That's the best way to
make money in News today.
Also, we also give
you the ability
to exclude certain categories
of ads in your channel,
but if you exclude too
many, you're going to end
up with too low of an ad
supply, and so only exclude
where you need to so you don't
cut yourself out of revenue.
You can also experiment
with larger ad formats.
We found out the larger ad
formats have much higher
click-through rates.
So think about things
like the interstitial ads.
And then consider video
free role if you're finding
that users are engaging
with your video content.
And so we have a tool that's
made for managing your ads
which is called Workbench.
And so you can do a couple
main things with this.
First, you can monitor
the News revenue
for the campaigns you
already have set up.
It's really easy to keep
an eye on things there,
and you can also
set up campaigns.
You can book, manage, report
on individual campaigns
right from Workbench.
It's a really simple
and intuitive tool.
Next, analytics and insight.
So we offer powerful
analytics tools in News.
Once you've started
delivering articles,
you can get some great insight
on how your content
is performing,
which articles are doing
better than others,
how your traffic
looks like over time.
It's a really great
exclusive tool
for Apple News Format
Publishers.
We offer a dashboard that gives
you great at-a-glance insight
on the content performance,
and if you're a power user,
you can download the
raw data via CSV,
but Apple News Format only.
This is what the analytics
dashboard looks like.
This is a view of channel data,
and so you can see these are
how many unique viewers this
particular channel has over
the course of a few days.
So it's a really nice,
rich way to get a, a,
some sense at a glance of
how your channel's doing.
You can even see at
the bottom we have a,
a list of the best performing
articles in a given channel,
which you can sort
by several vectors.
And here's a chart for,
for a specific article,
And here's a chart for,
for a specific article,
and so this one shows shares
for a given day, and you can see
that they're split up
based upon share method.
So you can really get a sense if
your users' sharing via Facebook
or Twitter or messages or mail,
and that can help you
reach out to them.
And then, of course, if you have
an existing analytics platform,
and you want to pull the
data from Apple News into it,
you can download the CSV
from the analytics tab
right from News Publisher.
So we've talked about a lot of
different vectors of Apple News.
Let's talk a little bit
about how you can make
your content successful
in Apple News.
So there are lots of ways
you can drive readers
to your channel.
We're going to cover
three main ones right now.
So, first, you, you want
to link to your channel
from wherever you can
and drive traffic to it.
Use the promoted articles
feature, which I'll show you.
And then use conical URL's,
and we'll talk about what
that is in a minute, too.
And, in addition, we have a link
at the end of the presentation
And, in addition, we have a link
at the end of the presentation
to our Marketing
Guidelines page.
There's lots of information
about how you can,
can promote your
channel outside of News.
So getting the word out about
your channel is critical,
and make it really easy to
get the link to your channel,
you just go into News Publisher
under the channel info tab,
see that there's a
shared link link.
So you click on that, and
it brings up a dialogue
where you can just
copy your link
and then share it
with the world.
So we also have a
promoted articles features,
and so what this does is
when you promote an article,
it will ensure that every user
sees that article at the top
of your channel when
they visit it.
And then when they come back,
that article will start to move
down as you deliver more
articles, but it will ensure
that everyone sees it at the top
of your channel at least once.
And it also, make sure it
appears in the more from section
at the bottom of articles
that you delivered.
You can promote up to
three articles per section.
It's really easy to promote.
You just click on the little
star next to an article,
You just click on the little
star next to an article,
and then it moves up to the
promoted articles section
in News Publisher.
So you can always see what you
have promoted at a given time.
So a great way to add some
visibility to certain articles.
Alright. So, finally,
conical URL's.
It's really easy
to share in News.
You can just swipe
and tap to share.
In iOS10, we've made
it even easier.
You can, we have a share
icon on every single article.
So users will be sharing a
lot, and you want to make sure
that users can get to your,
your articles no matter
which platform they're on.
And so conical URL's are
essentially a link back
to your original website.
So if you have a website, and a
user shares an Apple.News link,
if you included a conical URL
when you delivered your article,
if a user visits that link on
a Mac or other non-iOS device,
it will redirect them to Safari
to your original web page.
So it's a great way to make sure
that users can read your
articles no matter what platform
that users can read your
articles no matter what platform
they're on.
And so it falls back
if you're on non-iOS.
And this is an example
of an Apple.News link,
and then its accompanying
conical URL.
If you don't have a conical
URL, users will see this screen,
which isn't an ideal screen.
And so if you do have a website,
you should include
your conical URL
so users can view
it on any platform.
Alright. So some of the
best practices overall
for publishing in Apple News.
Write great stuff.
Try to check for errors and
typos and things like that.
If you have errors or
problems with your text,
it makes it harder
for us to classify
and then recommend it to users.
So really make sure you're
writing the best quality
you can.
Deliver high-resolution
images and use galleries.
Nothing drives engagement
like great visual content.
Use Rich Text and pull quotes,
animations and parallax.
Anything else that Apple
News Format lets you do
and be creative.
There are so many interesting
cool tools you can use.
There are so many interesting
cool tools you can use.
Dig around in the documentation,
and see what else you can do.
We really recommend that you
spend some time creating great,
great articles.
And then use Apple.News
when linking,
but use conical URL's
when you can.
And then we also recommend
having a somewhat consistent
publishing cadence so
users know what to expect
if you're publishing
on a regular basis.
They'll come back
to your channel
on a regular basis as well.
And so Apple News is very much
an Apple app, and we love great,
beautiful, and inspired stories,
and we have many actual humans
on the Apple News team, the
editorial team who go through
and look for amazing
Apple News format content.
They're looking for the
best stuff to feature,
and so we encourage you to
be creative and ambitious
with what you publish,
and if you're doing great
engaging Apple News Format
stories, our editors may notice,
and they might promote you
and help you find
the new audience
that you wouldn't
have otherwise found.
So a few places we do
this are in top stories,
in our new Featured
Story section in iOS 10,
in the Explore tab, in the
recommended widget, and for you.
We also have an Apple News
Twitter account where we tweet
out some of the best articles
that have been published
throughout the day,
and then we have a weekly
e-mail that we send out to many,
many users, and it's another
great venue to be discovered.
So some homework to do.
So first you want to sign
up for Apple News Format,
create a channel, and then start
publishing articles using either
your CMS via the Apple News API,
download and set up a plug in,
or you can author
in News Publisher.
So this is more information
about some of the links
and other places
in, in this link.
And then there's also a
related session on Friday.
This is an amazing session
dedicated to teaching you how
to create incredible Apple
News Format articles.
So I can't recommend this
session highly enough.
So I can't recommend this
session highly enough.
Casey and Dan will help
you make standout stories
that really engage and
delight your users.
They use some really cool stuff.
So I highly recommend
checking this one out.
So thanks, and I hope you're
having a great time at WWDC.
[ Applause ]