• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 9, 2015

Albeit in the shadow of its new music service, Apple just launched “News” -- a Flipboard-like mobile app that replaces Newsstand, and seeks to unseat Facebook and Twitter as top news and information aggregators.

Like Facebook, Flipboard and other news hubs, News will serve up stories from a slew of publishers, based on each reader’s perceived preferences.

The service is launching with about 20 publishing partners, including Condé Nast, ESPN, The New York Times, Hearst, Time Inc., CNN, BBC News, The Atlantic and Bloomberg. 

Publishers can reportedly keep all of the ad revenue derived from the partnership, although Apple will take a small share if it helps sell unsold inventory. As has been its practice, Apple will also get a 30% cut of revenue from subscriptions sold through publishers' respective apps.

Analysts say News is a no-brainer, even though Apple is not exactly dying for the resulting ad revenue.

“Media is second only to communication on mobile phones,” according to Forrester analyst Julie Ask. “It's a bit surprising as Apple does not need ad revenue, but that category of media was a gap in their portfolio.”

Social experts, however, are not yet convinced that News can supplant Facebook as a targeted news resource.

“Apple has an uphill battle ahead as they not only have to offer an experience that matches or surpasses the news consumption experience in apps like Facebook, Twitter, and now Snapchat, but also have to change user behaviors,” said Ron Schott, Director of Professional Services at social analytics startup Simply Measured.

“Mobile users are used to getting their updates from friends and news together in one stream, while the Apple News app is relying on them to specifically seek out publisher content in a stand-alone app,” Schott said.

Apple is hardly the first tech giant to eye news aggregation. “The landscape of apps trying to offer a personalized news experience is littered with dead bodies, including AOL and Google,” said Bob Buch, CEO of SocialWire, a startup building Facebook ads for retailers.

“If they get it right, Apples News app could give Flipboard a run for its money, but I don't see it being a credible threat to Facebook and Twitter,” in Buch’s opinion. “It will never beat Facebook at telling you what your friends are doing, and Twitter is too dominant in real-time news.”

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Apple News is helping publishers create stories that fit the service’s particular aesthetics. Content can include photos and galleries, audio, video and maps, as well as animation.

As part of its broader effort to appeal to publishers, Facebook recently launched Instant Articles -- a service that it promises will serve up content at a rate that is up to 10 times faster than standard mobile Web articles.

Sweetening the deal, Instant Article publisher partners can sell ads in their articles and keep 100% of the revenue, or they can use Facebook’s Audience Network to monetize unsold inventory.