Apple officially announced its March event yesterday, inviting press to Steve Jobs Theater on March 25th. At the event, the company is likely to announce a premium subscription service for Apple News. As expected, the latest betas of iOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14.4 lay the groundwork for the service.

As outlined by developer Steve Troughton-Smith on Twitter, iOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14.4 include several references to the magazine subscription service within Apple News. For instance, Apple lays out all of the different magazine genres that will be included:

  • Automotive
  • Business & Finance
  • Crafts & Hobby
  • Entertainment
  • Fashion & Style
  • Food & Cooking
  • Health & Fitness
  • Home & Gardening
  • Kids & Parenting
  • Men’s Lifestyle
  • News & Politics
  • Science & Technology
  • Sports & Recreation
  • Travel
  • Women’s Lifestyle

Other tidbits discovered in the latest iOS and macOS betas include that magazines will be PDF-based and support downloading for offline reading. There’s also support for push notifications when new issues of magazines are available, seemingly both on iOS and macOS.

Much of Apple’s technology for the Apple News integration with magazines likely comes from its acquisition of Texture. Apple acquired Texture last year as part of its efforts to build out Apple News. Texture is a $10 per month magazine subscription service, and reports have suggested that Apple’s magazine service will be similarly priced.

Apple’s relationship with publishers has reportedly become strained throughout the negotiations for the Apple News subscription service. Apple is reportedly seeking a 50 percent cut of revenue from the service, with publishers splitting the remaining 50 percent. While many publishers have reportedly pushed back at this split, Apple is believed to have signed some to such a deal.

Apple will likely unveil its Apple News subscription service later this month at its March 25th event, as well as its streaming video service. What features do you hope to see? Let us know down in the comments.

There’s a bunch you can discern about Apple News’ magazines from what’s in the OS betas: for example, the magazines are PDF-based (like most iPad magazines), and issues can be stored offline. The magazine genres are listed as pictured. Most of its code is written in Swift pic.twitter.com/Uc1gN0qygu

— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) March 12, 2019

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