Apple To Make The Recently Unveiled ‘News’ The Primary News Source For iPhone And iPad Users; Experienced Journalists To Manage Its News Feeds

Earlier this month, Apple had unveiled a new app for iOS 9 named ‘News’ that is designed to be a personalized digital magazine and newspaper viewer and now the US tech giant is looking at making Apple News a primary news source for iPhone and iPad users, according to reports.

According to a report on AFP via The Sydney Morning Herald, Apple will be hiring experienced journalists to manage its news feeds. This idea is quite different from Apple’s rivals Facebook which is working on formulas that the social networking giant to deliver articles to its users based on their web habits, demographics and interests, reports AFP.

"Apple is eager to have news created by human beings and not algorithms - it fits in with the brand statement Apple has been making," the AFP report quoted Judd Slivka, a professor of mobile journalism at the University of Missouri, as saying. "The expectation is they will put together a smart team that works well broadly across news and specific content areas,” explained Slivka further.

Apple unveiled ‘News’ at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on June 8 in San Francisco and in its official webpage, the tech giant says, News analyzes users’ interest and suggests relevant content that can be easily shared with friends or saved for later. News delivers articles from a variety of publishers and over one million topics allowing readers to personalize their reading experience. News is powered by the new Apple News Format, which is a digital publishing format supporting custom typography, galleries, audio, video and interactive animations.

According to the AFP report, Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University sees the decision to hire experienced journalists as a positive initiative. "A lot of people don't want to be fed news that a robot has decided interests them," the AFP report quoted Professor Kennedy, as saying. "Especially if you don't have any say how the robot makes that decision. The Facebook algorithm is highly mysterious, and people are starting to resent that,” explains Professor Kennedy.

News organizations partnering with Apple include Conde Nast magazines, ESPN, The New York Times, Hearst, Time Inc., CNN and Bloomberg, however, Apple will also allow other bloggers and publishers to partner with its new app, reports AFP.

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