Apple buys digital magazine service

Apple Inc. said it is acquiring Texture, a digital magazine service that lets users subscribe to more than 200 magazines for $9.99 a month.

Texture, offered via the app stores of Apple, Google and Amazon.com Inc., bolsters Apple’s efforts in online services and media. The Cupertino, Calif., company aims to top $50 billion in annual services revenue by 2021, and a magazine subscription service would probably contribute to that.

The deal may help Apple boost relations with news outlets that have become wary of Facebook Inc. and Google. Some publishers reported losing online traffic from Facebook after the social media network recently refocused on content from users’ friends and relatives.

Texture’s magazine catalog includes Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Bloomberg Businessweek. The app is currently run by Next Issue Media, owned by a group of publishers and other companies including Hearst Corp., Meredith Corp., News Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. In 2014, private equity firm KKR invested $50 million in the company.

Apple made its first big push to integrate magazines and newspapers into its devices with an application called Newsstand in 2011. It replaced that with the more comprehensive Apple News service a couple of years ago.

Apple typically doesn’t formally announce acquisitions of smaller companies, but executive Eddy Cue, who oversees its media efforts, is speaking at the South by Southwest conference this week in Austin, Texas.

“We’re excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world’s leading publishers,” Cue said in a statement.

Apple didn’t say how much it paid for Texture.