Apple took the covers off its new News app as part of the new iOS 9 for iPhones and iPads during its annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC). The News app, with a Filpboard-style interface, will be replacing the Newsstand application on Apple devices. Apple says that it has roped in 20 publishers on board for its application and includes The New York Times, Conde Nast, ESPN, CNN, Bloomberg, Time Inc, and Hearst with 50 more titles joining. News will be supported in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia when it launches. The app will have to contend with Google Play's Newsstand for iOS and also Flipboard itself. Flipboard CEO Mike McCue told VentureBeat in February that the service has about 50 million monthly active users and its users curate a total of 15 million individual magazines. News Publisher Apple also is developing a new format to push content to its news application via a News Publisher platform with crafted layouts, custom typography, rich photo galleries, videos, and animations. "Author once and News will optimize your content for all iOS devices. You’ll also be able to connect your existing content management systems to News, and get access to a rich suite of tools for measuring user engagement," Apple said on its website. Note, News Publisher can only support stories in English currently and says other languages will be supported later. For now, publishers can push their content on the News app via RSS feeds, but it will be adding more publishing tools later. Publishers…
