Online news is letting the intrusive thoughts win

20 years after saving the music industry can Apple save online news?

The online news industry is currently giving readers 2 options for reading news on the dying mobile web:

1. Allow garish and intrusive ads and get unreadable articles or

2. Block garish and intrusive ads and get blocked by these godawful "ALLOW ADS" Admiral popups

Apple chose privacy first on the iPhone and, yeah, that wrecked some business models. But jeez.

It reminds me of the music industry’s customer hostile approach to music piracy back in the early 2000s. You could:

1. Pay for an entire overpriced CD for the one song you really wanted or

2. Download music for free at the risk of getting sued by the RIAA

Those were the only two options the music industry offered. Until of course, famously, Steve Jobs swooped in with iTunes and the iPod and literally saved the industry.

And now 20 years later with the growing popularity of Apple News, as crazy as it sounds, Apple might be in the position to do the same thing for online news.

Many startups have tried to solve the "streaming news" problem, but thanks to the ubiquity of the iPhone and the popularity of the Apple One bundle, Apple News is actually starting to gain real traction.

Just like you needed the size and sway of Apple and Jobs to make iTunes work, you needed the reach of the iPhone and the deep pockets and customer first approach of Apple to make streaming news work.

And – just like it did 20 years ago for the music industry – I hope streaming news can work out financially for the news industry. Because thanks to their current 2 really shitty options, Apple News will be one of the only non customer hostile 3rd options.

But I guess at least they're not suing readers yet?!