Exclusive: SmartNews releases new subscription app called NewsArc
Why it matters: The new app — called NewsArc — is meant to offer heavily engaged news readers a more personalized experience without putting them in echo chambers.
How it works: NewsArc uses AI to filter, identify and serve news stories based on years of reading pattern data from SmartNews, chief technology officer Cory Ondrejka says.
The app relies on a proprietary large language model built by SmartNews to promote stories that it thinks support better comprehension and meaningful engagement, per SmartNews' product senior vice president Jason Holtman.
The app will be available to mobile and iPad users on Apple's iOS operating system and Google Android mobile users in the U.S. beginning Tuesday.
Between the lines: SmartNews relies on direct relationships with more than 3,000 publishers to supply content on its free app. It pays those publishers through a revenue-share agreement to have access to that content.
NewsArc will rely on content from those publishers for its app as well. Like SmartNews, it hires human editors to assist with curation, in addition to AI.
Ondrejka says the company decided to build a separate app to make it easier to focus on quality recommendations.
Zoom out: SmartNews, which launched in Japan in 2012, has gained a sizable audience in the U.S. since launching here six years ago. But the U.S. market "is far more polarized," Holtman says.
"There is far more outrage and attention reinforcement products," where "outrage is the primary driver of attention."
By the numbers: The company, which is private, does not disclose the size of its U.S. audience, but SimilarWeb estimates that it's in the top 50 news apps on Apple's iOS in the U.S.
SmartNews has raised more than $400 million to fuel its expansion. Its latest public funding round in 2021 valued the company at over $2 billion post-money.
The bottom line: "We actually think it's really important for people to have a shared view of the news," Holtman says. "We actually approach (curation) starting with, what do we think are the most important stories going on in the U.S.? And everybody sees the same set of them."
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