There's a certain air of mystery as to what Apple ($AAPL) is up to when it comes to content. In March, Apple acquired digital magazine service Texture in a move that illustrated quite clearly the company's intentions to dig deeper into content delivery on its devices. Texture is described as the "Netflix of publishing" in that it gives users access to multiple magazines from major publishers for a flat fee per month.
But there has also been more recent buzz that Apple is aiming to create its own editorial content outside of aggregators like it currently does with Apple News and Texture.
Going back as far as 2015, Apple has been hiring editors for its News app. But those editors behaved more like content aggregators, fielding news pitches from publications, repackaging the content, and delivering it on the iOS News app as a way to keep people within Apple's ecosystem.
Hiring activity trends that we disovered in our Apple job-listing time series' shows cyclical hiring efforts for skilled editorial positions following a noted developmental-hire peak last summer. In other words, it looks as though Apple brought on a team to re-develop the Apple News application and followed that with an acute editorial hiring phase to begin creating original content.
"Apple News" Jobs over time
When it comes to hires with "Apple News" in titles of job descriptions, a marked peak in November 2017 was seen. Many of these jobs were developmental, including product managers, analystics engineers, producers, and audience development managers.
Apple Openings Filtered for Editorial Positions
Immediately following that developmental period for Apple News, however, we see an uptick in editorial-creation-focused openings. The above graph illustrates Apple openings filtered for "Editor" while solving for positions that are not for the TV App, iTunes, App Store, and Engineers. Those jobs, as of today, include titles such as "Politics Editor", "Business Editor", "US Editor (London Based) Apple News", and more.
Those jobs and locations are listed below - as you can see, it's pretty clear that Apple is looking to bring on some skilled editors.
|
Title |
Category |
City |
|---|---|---|
|
Video Editor |
Operations |
Austin |
|
US Editor (London based) Apple News |
Marketing |
London |
|
Editorial Operations- Apple News |
Operations |
London |
|
Politics Editor |
Marketing |
New York City |
|
Business Editor |
Marketing |
Santa Clara Valley |
|
Editorial Manager |
Marketing |
Santa Clara Valley |
|
Senior Editorial Cartographer |
Information Systems and Technology |
Santa Clara Valley |
|
Sr. Art Director, Editorial Design |
Design |
Seoul |
|
Sr. Art Director, Editorial Design |
Design |
Shanghai |
|
Visual Designer, Editorial Design |
Design |
Shanghai |
|
South East Asia Editorial & Localization Manager |
Software Engineering |
Singapore |
|
Production Designer, Editorial Design |
Design |
Taipei |
|
International Editorial and Localization Producer |
Marketing |
Tokyo-IT |
But the editorial effort began last fall. Apple's listing for a "Politics Editor", for instance, has remained on Apple's job site since November, 2017 when the hiring spree began. And Apple's not looking for just any editor - it's looking for someone with at leasst seven years experience and a "strong understanding of high-quality journalism". Around that same date, Apple was hiring a TV & Movies Editor, an Editorial Director, a News Desk Editor, a Culture Editor, and a Business Editor. More recent job listings include editorial Art Directors and Production Designers, as seen in the table above.
Sounds like a real news room to us.
In other words, if there was any doubt that Apple is looking to get into editorial publishing in a bigger way, those doubts should be cast aside.
