The iPad Daily
Posted on Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 10:56 AM
How the iPad's daily newspaper is bringing the traditional newspaper
into the Digital Age.
By Meredith L. Dias
Earlier
this month, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. launched The Daily, a
daily newspaper for the Apple iPad. With this digital daily, News Corp.
hopes to marry the traditional concept of the daily newspaper and tablet
technology. Forrester Research has forecast that tablets
will overtake desktop computing by 2013. News Corp. seems poised to
take advantage of that trend.
The Daily is Murdoch's
appeal to a new generation of readers. Will it become the gold standard
for digital newspaper publishing? Will new readers latch on to Murdoch's
vision? And just what subscription model is News Corp. going to use,
anyway?
An App-based Subscription
Thanks to Verizon
sponsorship, The Daily will be available to iPad users for a free
two-week trial. Satisfied readers can subscribe for 99 cents per week or
$39.95 per year through the iTunes App Store. There is a new issue each
day, with periodic updates throughout the day for breaking news content.
There
are, of course, limitations. Currently, the publication is iPad-only;
not even iPhone users can access it. What this means for the ultimate
success of The Daily, which just debuted on February 2, remains
to be seen. While the iPad is certainly popular, it stands to reason
that News Corp. would get more mileage (not to mention profit) out of
the daily, which will cost an
estimated $56 million to run in its first year, if it were at least
available to the millions of iPhone users in the United States.
Publication
Features
So what does a subscription to The Daily get
you? "A newspaper that's both old-fashioned and cutting edge," says
Peter Kafka of MediaMemo.com. Journalistic content is beefed up with
photographs, 360-degree panoramic images, streaming HD video, and links.
Users can share some content with their social networks, but other
content remains behind a paywall.
Interactivity plays a role in The
Daily's identity, too. Users can share certain articles with their
social networks, and there are both text and audio comment options for
readers to sound off about stories. They can also customize their
reading experience with features like local weather data.
Some
early adopters of the app describe their Daily experience as "more
like reading a news magazine than a traditional newspaper." Others
have dismissed the newspaper as tabloidesque. Still others have lauded
Murdoch's incorporation of snazzy multimedia extras into news copy.
Advertisers
News
Corp. hopes that, eventually, subscriptions
and advertising will each account for half the publication's revenues.
For the time being, the newspaper will rely primarily upon its
subscribers to pay the bills. However, in a recent
article on RedHerring.com, newspaper analyst Ken Doctor predicts
that less than one percent of iPad users will buy subscriptions to The
Daily, which would necessitate a less balanced, advertising-heavy
revenue model.
For the time being, the newspaper remains in a
foundational phase, developing relationships and name recognition with
advertisers and readers alike. CNBC
reports that HBO, Land Rover, Macy's, Paramount Pictures, Pepsi,
Verizon, and Virgin Atlantic are among the first advertisers.
Can
The Daily Go the Distance?
The Daily has one advantage
over its competitors: It is brand new and, therefore, free to explore
its own potential without the burden of heavy reader expectations.
Unlike the New York Times or Time, this is a new brand. It
has no print or digital predecessor and, therefore, can evolve with a
freedom impossible for an established publishing brand. However, with
its powerful Murdoch backing, The Daily has enough resources and
name recognition to become a powerful contender if it employs sound
strategic planning.
There are, as mentioned earlier, limitations.
With several high-profile tablet models, not to mention the perpetually
expanding crop of smartphone users, it would be wise for News Corp. to
reconsider its iPad-only strategy. The iPad makes for a compelling test
market, but with other tablets now on the market and several more due to
hit stores this year, it seems unwise to remain iPad-exclusive for long.
We can't know how popular The Daily will become, but if it does
meet or exceed expectations, expanding beyond the iPad could mean the
difference between 50,000 and 5,000,000 subscribers.
Meredith
Dias is senior editor of STRAT.
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