The Future of Publishing Has Arrived

Posted: February 2nd, 2011 | Author: Michael Courtenay | Filed under: Apple, Cult of Apple, iPhone, Smartphone, Standout, Technoid Computer News, Technoid Gadget News | Tags: apple, iPad, iPad Publication, iphone, News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, steve jobs, The Daily | 1 Comment »

Murdoch Launches The Daily iPad Only Newspaper.

New York Today: Rupert Murdoch launched his new iPad-only newspaper, Newscop has hired a staff of 100 journalists to produce a fully-digital news app. The Daily is free for the first two weeks, and then they start charging: $.99 per week, or $39.99 for a full year. That’s less expensive than the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal – which currently charges over $100 for a full year – it is, however, more expensive than $0, the highest amount most consumers currently seem willing to pay for news content in our brave digital age.

“New times demand new journalism,” said Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, introducing The Daily, the company’s iPad newspaper today.

Murdoch thanked “the amazing Steve Jobs” who last month took a medical leave as CEO of Apple due to health concerns, Jobs was not in attendance. The launch at Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum, Murdoch noted that he spoke to the Apple visionary last week, adding ,“Steve has been a champion of The Daily from day one.”

The Daily, which is available for .99 a week or $39.99 a year through iTunes, features HD video, animated graphics and text content, of course. Some stories are fronted by a TV news anchor, while others feature 360-degree photos. There are also personalized web tools, social media sharing and Web integration. The central navigation tool, called the carousel,” enables direct access to stories. A customized sports section lets users follow their favorite teams including their Tweets, stats and game schedules.

“Our challenge is to take the best of traditional journalism …and combine it with the best of contemporary technology.”

Murdoch, whose newspapers include The Times, The Sunday Times and News of the World in the UK, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal in the U.S.  asserted that The Daily was well-positioned to reach new consumers precisely because it isn’t a “legacy brand moving from the print to the digital world.”

“We must make the business of news gathering viable again”

And while The Daily is currently exclusive to the iPad, which dominates the tablet market with 15 million iPads sold since its launch last April, according to Cue, Murdoch allowed that it would eventually be available on “all major tablets.” Samsung and Motorola are at work on tablets for Google’s Android operating system.

A Newscorp source has said that the start-up investment for The Daily was $30 million, much less than the reported $100 million reported in mainstream media – weekly operating costsfor the digital rag are about $500,000. “And that’s without any advertisers or subscribers yet”

The Daily has lured many media stars including Sasha Frere-Jones, the music critic at The New Yorker, and Page Six editor Richard Johnson. The Daily’s editor Jesse Angelo said: “This is a new platform. We really want a new voice. We are patriotic. We love America.” what that indicates is up in the air, rest assured The Daily is a Murdoch paper . . .

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