December 14, 2023
You've cracked the SEO strategy, have a loyal following on socials, and your newsletter subscription base is growing nicely.
But there's one question lingering at the back of your mind… how can your publication start delivering content to Apple News?
There are some technical requirements to take into account, and some methods are more time consuming than others.
FlatPlan is a preferred Apple News provider that eliminates these hurdles — meaning you won't have to change CMS or add to the long list of projects your engineers are working on.
Let's begin by looking at the options available, and the unnecessary obstacles you'll want to avoid.
A number of content management systems allow you to download and install plugins that connect your backend to Apple News.
Unfortunately though, it can take a lot of time and effort for articles to start reaching this platform.
You'll need engineers on hand to create a staging and then production build before it can go live — with ongoing maintenance and support required.
Such plugins are often simplistic too, meaning they're not a fully featured way of delivering content to Apple News. Layouts will be basic, not all embeds will be delivered to the platform, and articles will often be rejected because of configuration issues.
In a way, it's the worst of both worlds. Not only will this method tie up your resources, but the experience for readers will be suboptimal — and you'll miss out on opportunities to drive growth.
You may be considering whether a bespoke system for publishing to Apple News is a better fit.
This involves wading through substantial amounts of documentation to create infrastructure that meets the platform's standards — and ensure your content is delivered without any glitches.
Thought will also need to be given to embeds, images, captions, pull quotes and metadata, meaning it's likely that producers, writers and editors will need to undergo extra training.
You might need a frontend and a backend engineer to ensure templates are properly delivered — and a mechanism for handling error messages that alert you to delivery issues.
When coupled with the fact you'll need someone who understands the technical nuances of Apple News, and how its API operates, this can amount to months of work.
It doesn't have to be this messy.
FlatPlan handles all of the technical stuff behind the scenes, meaning your newsroom can focus on producing great journalism. We're fully compatible with major content management systems including WordPress, Craft CMS and Drupal.
From the onboarding process to how articles are designed, and from QA testing to getting pieces live, we take the stress out of joining this platform.
All you need to get started is a feed of content – typically a simple RSS feed — something that most content management systems output as standard.
And once this is connected, FlatPlan will automatically know when new content is published, meaning it can be immediately presented to readers on Apple devices around the world.
Our no-code solution also offers indispensable tools for increasing traffic, from Follow mechanics that build loyalty from readers, to systems that automatically promote your strongest content on the platform.
This, when coupled with detailed analytics, delivers a richer experience with less of the fuss, all while unlocking new avenues of monetisation.
Get in touch with us to book a demo and find out how simple publishing to Apple News can be.
No matter what stage you're at in your discovery of Apple News, we'll help you get the information you need to make the right decision for your media business.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
