Apple includes 300 magazines in subscription news service

Apple launched a subscription news service Monday that includes more than 300 magazines as part of the iPhone maker's pivot to services.

The Apple News+ service at a cost of $9.99 per month will include the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal, digital news sites and magazine titles including Rolling Stone, Time, Wired and The New Yorker.

The new offering was announced at an event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California where the tech giant was revealing a new emphasis on digital content and other services to offset slumps in smartphone sales.

Apple News+ is being offered in the US and Canada with an expected launch later this year in Britain and Australia.

Apple also prepared to lift the curtain on a television and movie streaming service that will allow users of its 1.4 billion gadgets to stream television shows and movies, both Apple originals and those from other creators, in a first step to challenge streaming video leaders Netflix and Amazon.

Chief Executive Tim Cook introduced Monday's event at the glass-enclosed Steve Jobs Theater at Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters, saying the event would focus on the technology company's services, not its hardware. He said Apple's strength was "the seamless integration of hardware, software and services."

By highlighting services that run on its 1.4 billion consumer devices, rather than the devices themselves, Apple's strategy change is a momentous shift in emphasis under Chief Executive Tim Cook, who succeeded the late Steve Jobs in 2011.