Apple Wants 50% Cut From Publishers for Subscription News Service

Benjamin Mullin, Lukas Alpert and Tripp Mickle, for The Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc.’s plan to create a subscription service for news is running into resistance from major publishers over the tech giant’s proposed financial terms, according to people familiar with the situation, complicating an initiative that is part of the company’s efforts to offset slowing iPhone sales.

In its pitch to some news organizations, the Cupertino, Calif., company has said it would keep about half of the subscription revenue from the service, the people said.

A publisher would need to restructure a few things to adapt to this ‘Netflix for News’. What happens if or when Apple changes their mind? Or the structure of the service? Or abandons it, as they have done with things in the past? Even a 70/30 split would be greedy. I also assume access to this service would require an Apple device — I am strictly against siloing off the internet, which was designed to be open and accessible. Someone at Apple needs a reality check.