• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 15, 2016

Playing the native game, Apple is readying support for ads that look like normal articles in its News app.

As Apple has clearly outlined, a “native banner” unit is among seven new ad formats soon to be supported by the News app. Business Insider first reported the development.

“Native ads display directly in the content feeds, inline with News articles, and are intended to blend in with their surrounding, Apple notes in a specifications document. “They will be set in the default font used in News.”

Distinguished only by a Sponsored call out, each native ad includes a title, text excerpt and a small image. Sponsor advertisers have the option of including their name in their unit, but that is their choice. The forthcoming native ads can also link to an article in News.

Since launching its News app for iOS last summer, Apple is been testing various monetization and distribution strategies.

Currently, publishers can already place ads inside of the Apple News stories, but it is hardly common practice. Apple is reportedly developing a content subscription feature for the app.

News of the native push follows a report that Apple was effectively giving up on its iAd business. The plan -- later confirmed by Apple -- was to let publishers keep 100% of their iAd ad revenue.

Now, however, sources tell Business Insider that publishers running the new units will only get to keep 70% of the resulting revenue.

Apple did not return requests for comment by press time.