Apple launches audio stories, Apple News Today show for Apple News

Apple has announced a number of new features for Apple News and Apple News+ today, including new audio stories, curated local news, and more publications.

Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News, says that the company is excited to launch both its daily audio news show, Apple News Today, as well as its work with local journalism.

"Apple News showcases so much great journalism, and we're excited to help bring it to life in new ways with Apple News+ audio stories and a new daily news show, Apple News Today. We also greatly value our many local news partners — our new local news feature highlights their work for readers who live, and are interested, in those communities."

Apple is launching a number of audio-centric content in Apple News, Apple News+ and Apple Podcasts, including a daily briefing called Apple News Today which will be free to all listeners in the Apple News and Apple Podcasts app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and even through Carplay. The company is also producing twenty audio stories a week, but listeners will have to be subscribed to Apple News+ to access those.

Beginning today, Apple News will produce about 20 audio stories a week across a wide range of interests. Narrated by professional voice actors, these are audio versions of some of the best feature reporting and long-form pieces published by Esquire, Essence, Fast Company, GQ, New York magazine, Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, and more, and newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal...With Apple News Today, a daily audio news briefing, Apple News editors and co-hosts Shumita Basu and Duarte Geraldino guide listeners through some of the most fascinating stories in the news — and how the world's best journalists are covering them.

Concerning local news, Apple has launched a number of colllections designed to connect people with their local community. Those collections are currently available in the Bay Area, New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston, but the company says it plans to expand that coverage on a regular basis to other regions. Apple News+ subscribers will also now have access to additional local and regional publications such as The Charlotte Observer, The Kansas City Star, and the Miami Herald.

Local news collections in Apple News include coverage of topics most important to local communities, such as sports, dining and restaurants, weather, news and politics, and more, with curation by local Apple News editors as well as personalization for each user...A subscription to Apple News+ in the US now includes access to The Charlotte Observer, the Idaho Statesman, The Kansas City Star, the Miami Herald, The News & Observer, and The State (Columbia, South Carolina). In Canada, leading French-language newspaper Le Devoir is now available to Apple News+ subscribers, and The Globe and Mail, one of the country's most prestigious national newspapers, will be available to subscribers later this summer.

Apple says that Apple News currently has a user base of 125 million monthly active users in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. You can read the full press release on the Apple Newsroom website.