Apple News’ Business Chief has stepped down following a slow start to the new subscription service under Apple’s belt. Liz Schimel, the head of business, first joined the company in 2018, a year before Apple announced that the news app would be introducing a $10/month subscription.
In a report from Bloomberg, Schimel’s departure has made Apple strive to seek a high profile name in the publishing industry as a replacement. Schimel was a key component in solidifying and maintaining relationships between Apple, news publishers, and advertisers.
Last year, Apple announced that its News app would be adding a $10/month subscription, which included digital magazines and access to major newspapers. Publishers such as The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and People were incorporated into the subscription. The New York Times and Washington Post, for instance, were unwilling to jump on board at risk of damaging their own internal subscriptions.
While the base Apple News app has gained a respective user base since its inception in 2015, Apple News+ has not found its footing when compared to Apple’s other services. In January of this year, Apple revealed that there were over 100 million active users on Apple News but did not share numbers for its subscription component.
It has also been reported that Apple may introduce a bundled subscription that will span across Apple News+, Apple TV+, and Apple Music. This would likely not only boost Apple News+ users but generate more revenue across all of Apple’s major services.
At the time of writing, Apple has not issued a comment regarding Schimel’s departure.
