CNN, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), has quietly ended its content-sharing deal with Apple News (AAPL) and removed its content from the app over the weekend, Semafor reported.
The companies are continuing to discuss a new deal that would restore CNN’s stories to the Apple News feed.
Apple News and its paid counterpart, Apple News+, have become key distribution and monetization levers for news publishers, the report noted. Apple News+, which offers content from paywalled publications, yields millions in annual revenue for publishers.
But some media companies are wary of relying heavily on traffic from a tech platform. They point to failed digital media startups that relied heavily on Facebook for distribution – only to see the platform turn its back on news.
CNN has been doubling down on digital monetization, with its recent rollout of a new streaming subscription called ‘All Access’ and the implementation of a partial digital paywall over the past year.