Financial Times protests Apple’s bid to take over billing relations

The Financial Times is in open revolt against Apple’s policy on offering newspaper subscriptions via the App Store. Since February, newspaper and magazine publishers are obliged to sell subscriptions to their apps via the App Store. Subscriptions may also be sold through the publishers’ own channels, but need to be for sale through the App Store, too.

Managing director of FT.com, Rob Grimshaw, is reluctant to relinquish the direct relations with his customers. "We don't want to lose our direct relationship with our subscribers. It's at the core of our business model," Grimshaw told Reuters. Having full control over customer relations allows FT to tailor products and advertisements to its audience.

FT, that delivers specialised content, is one of the few newspapers that has developed a successful online business model. Other titles, providing less specialised news that is also often available for free, struggle to emulate this success.

Grimshaw does not rule out that FT will withdraw from the App store if the two firms cannot come to an agreement. Grimshaw: "If it turns out that one or another channel doesn't mix with the way we want to do business, there's a large number of other channels available to us."

This luxury position (FT has nearly 600.000 paying subscribers, from a historical peak of 440.000 paying print subscribers) is not shared by many other newspapers. Digital revenues tally up to 40% of the Financial Times’ income last year. "We have something to lose," Grimshaw said. "The publishing market as a whole is in a different situation."