Apple News to Use Real Editors, Not Computer Algorithms

Apple's plan to use real people to curate content is reaching beyond Apple Music and will include Apple News, too. The Mac and iPhone maker is planning to use experienced editors to collect the articles we see through the Apple News service.

Apple hiring actual editors for Apple News serviceApple hiring actual editors for Apple News service

Apple tipped its hand through a job posting for Apple News Editors. The job listing says,

The Apple News team is looking for passionate, knowledgeable editors to help identify and deliver the best in breaking national, global, and local news. These editors will help News users find the best and most timely coverage of major news events, while also managing select categories based on their areas of professional expertise.

The job listing means that instead of relying on RSS feeds and computer algorithms to gather content for Apple News, experienced news editors will be deciding what content we see. This could give Apple an advantage in the curated news game because the articles included in the service will be hand picked.

Facebook is getting into the news market, too, with its Instant News feature. Instead of using a team of editors, however, Facebook is letting the news publishers decide which articles appear in our streams. Flipboard, which considers itself a direct competitor to Apple News relies more on automated systems to select content.

Since Apple is going to use its own on-staff team to curate news, it'll be interesting to see if they're free to cover any topic—including news that paints Apple in a negative light.

Apple unveiled Apple News during its Worldwide Developer Conference keynote presentation earlier this month. The service will be part of iOS 9, set to release this fall.