American multinational tech company Apple is reportedly asking publishers for permission to record audio of their stories to include in its News Plus app.
According to The Verge, Digiday confirmed that the publication says it spoke with four publishers that heard the offer. Apple would cover the costs of production and compensate publishers similarly to how it does for written articles: 50 per cent of subscriber revenue goes to publishers based on how much time subscribers spent with publishers' content in a 30-day period.
As per the sources to Digiday, the company initially wanted permission to record any story it wanted, but publishers are now looking to pitch the company their own works because of intellectual property concerns.
Apple has been rumoured to be looking into creating its own audio content for months now -- although, in that case, people thought it would involve the company creating its own podcasts.
( With inputs from ANI )