We've been keeping tabs on the long-running saga of "The Daily" iPad launch for
"The Daily" is News Corp's planned iPad-only newspaper. There are already more than 100 journalists
It's thought it's because News Corp is having to wait for Apple to organise its new App Store subscription method, where punters will have to subscribe to mags and rags using their iTunes account. That would mean no more subscription outside of Apple's control and Cupertino will be able to pocket its 30%.
James Murdoch, Roop's son and CEO of News Corp Europe and Asia, has been questioned about "The Daily" at a conference in Germany. And he says it will be out soon-ish and will cost - on subscription - 59p/99c PER WEEK. Earlier reports put the price at 99c a day.
Hit the jump for the full question-and-answer:
Q: When is The Daily going to launch?
So first, The Daily is going to be a very exciting digital publication, which I think should be launching in the next few weeks, I hope.
It’s going to be a brand new piece of journalism. We want to get out there quickly, at a good price, and I think it will surprise people. I also think it will succeed or fail on the journalism part, not the bells and whistles.
You already employ about 126 people on the journalistic side for The Daily, and the price will be 99 US cents. Is that sufficient?
Well, we wanted it to have a very good price, affordable for most people, at 99 cents a week.
It lowers the barrier for people to enjoy high quality journalism. We realize the pricing models for apps and paid journalism as a whole is still developing, whether it will be bundled or tiered, and so on.
What we’re focused on is making the experience super simple, at great value, without stopping us from investing in really unique journalism. You know, as opposed to taking your RSS feeds, cutting and pasting wires like other publications. We want to break out of that.
How many The Daily editions do you have to sell to call it a success?
We’re taking this milestone by milestone, and we don’t know what pace to expect, and how the dynamics with the weekly subscription will work.
We have high hopes for the US marketplace in particular, though.
You’re now a big part of management at News Corp. How does it feel to be the future of the company?
Not just me – I think a lot of people will be the future of News Corp, but it’s an exciting company, I believe we’re really unique. We’re a mix of media businesses, and we’re truly global.
If you look at our breadth of businesses, we’re clearly about storytelling. For digital, this is definitely the best and at the same time most challenging time for the news business.
You obviously still deliver news on paper, so what I’m wondering is whether you consider News Corp to be and old economy company or a new economy company?
I think the distinction between that ‘old’ and ‘new’ economy needs to be broken down. When we think about our business, storytelling, we don’t see it that way, and it shows in our investments in the space.
You’ve talked about apps, where it’s really a mixture of things – games, music, social networks, etcetera. It’s a frictionless environment, and as copyrighted content owners we’re in a really good position there.
Also, we see that the cost of distributing those ones and zeros continues to go down. We look at tablets, and for a journalistic product like The Daily, we acknowledge that it’s transformational. In the end, journalistic quality is key to everything.
How much of your revenues are digital as opposed to traditional?
We don’t break it out that way, but I can tell you that the vast majority comes from digital and paid television. On a combined basis, in Europe for example, over 70 percent comes from our digital TV business. These are new, 21st century businesses, with brand new technologies, in voice, broadband, with content at its heart.
The paper-based part of our business is about 15 percent, maybe less.
Would you still invest in paper?
Well, we are, and yes, I think we will in the future. The Sun just had a record Christmas, and we build on our relationship with our readers and our advertisers, who are still responding really well to paper products. Our books business is thriving as well.
Of course, we had the economic crisis, and there’s this perception of decline in the newspaper business. But Big franchises tend to still do really well. The scarcity of great brands is going up, which means the value increases along with it. This is a critical factor. The middleground I think is currently suffering, not the top players or the great niche players.
(Via: TechCrunch)
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