Apple has quietly introduced an ad format for sponsored posts that appear in users' news feeds alongside articles in the Apple News app.
The company recently updated a developer specification document for Apple's in-house mobile-advertising platform to include the sponsored ad unit.
According to the native-banner format, sponsored ads will "display directly in the content feeds, in line with News articles," and can link to an article in the News app. The advertising format is available for the iPhone and iPad versions of Apple News.