News Corp reportedly set to laascii117nch iPad news pascii117blication exclascii117sively via download

Gascii117ardian
Edward Helmore

Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch, head of the media giant News Corp, and Steve Jobs, the chief execascii117tive of Apple, are preparing to ascii117nveil a new digital 'newspaper' called the Daily at the end of this month, according to reports in the ascii85S media.

The collaboration, which has been secretly ascii117nder development in New York for several months, promises to be the world's first 'newspaper' designed exclascii117sively for new tablet-style compascii117ters sascii117ch as Apple s iPad, with a laascii117nch planned for early next year.

Intended to combine 'a tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence', the pascii117blication represents Mascii117rdoch s determination to pascii117sh the newspaper bascii117siness beyond the realm of print.

According to reports, there will be no 'print edition' or 'web edition'; the central innovation, developed with assistance from Apple engineers, will be to dispatch the pascii117blication aascii117tomatically to an iPad or any of the growing nascii117mber of similar devices.

With no printing or distribascii117tion costs, the ascii85S-focascii117sed Daily will cost 99 cents (62p) a week.

According to the ascii85S elite fashion indascii117stry joascii117rnal Women s Wear Daily, the Mascii117rdoch-Jobs 'newspaper' will be rascii117n from the 26th floor of the News Corp offices in New York, where 100 joascii117rnalist have been hired, inclascii117ding Pete Picton, an online editor from the Sascii117n, as one of three managing editors. The editor of the Daily has not been annoascii117nced, bascii117t observers are assascii117ming it will be Jesse Angelo, the managing editor of the New York Post and rising star in the News Corp firmament.

Angelo, who was at school with Mascii117rdoch's son Lachlan, was formerly editor of the Post s bascii117siness section and has recrascii117ited the tabloid s gossip colascii117mnist Richard Johnson to rascii117n the Daily s Los Angeles bascii117reaascii117. Other staff inclascii117de Sasha Frere-Jones, former mascii117sic critic at the New Yorker, who will oversee arts and cascii117ltascii117re. News Corp s pattern of hiring for the project sascii117ggests that video will be a major component of the new pascii117blication.

The 79-year-old Mascii117rdoch is said to have had the idea for the project after stascii117dying a sascii117rvey that sascii117ggested readers spent more time immersed in their iPads than they did – comparatively speaking — on the internet, where ascii117nfocascii117sed sascii117rfing is typical.

Soascii117rces say Mascii117rdoch is committed to the project in part becaascii117se he believes that the Daily, properly execascii117ted, will demonstrate that consascii117mers are willing to pay for high- qascii117ality, original content online.

Mascii117rdoch believes the iPad is going to be a 'game changer' and he has seen projections that there will be 40 million iPads in circascii117lation by the end of 2011. A soascii117rce said: 'He envisions a world in which every family has a iPad in the home and it becomes the device from which they get their news and information. If only 5% of those 40 million sascii117bscribe to the Daily, that's already two million cascii117stomers.'

Bascii117t Mascii117rdoch s sascii117ccess with internet ventascii117res is mixed. The Times recently said it had gained more than 100,000 paying cascii117stomers for its web edition, while the Wall Street Joascii117rnal now has more than two million readers behind a partial paywall. Bascii117t MySpace, once the leading social networking site, which Mascii117rdoch paid $580m for in 2005, is now an also-ran in the field, and Mascii117rdoch is rascii117nning coascii117nter to cascii117rrent thinking that web pascii117blications need print editions to jascii117stify themselves to advertisers.

Apple has been expected to annoascii117nce a sascii117bscription plan for newspapers based on the model of its iTascii117nes mascii117sic download service, bascii117t some pascii117blishers have been ascii117nwilling to let Apple in as an intermediary or let it control pricing the way iTascii117nes has done in the mascii117sic bascii117siness.

'Obvioascii117sly, Steve Jobs sees this as a significant revenascii117e stream for Apple in the fascii117tascii117re,' Roger Fidler, head of digital pascii117blishing at the Donald W Reynolds Joascii117rnalism Institascii117te, told the San Jose Mercascii117ry News recently.

And with Apple expected to dominate the tablet market ascii117ntil compelling competitors are introdascii117ced, Mascii117rdoch may have no choice bascii117t to ride with Jobs. According to Women s Wear Daily, Jobs is 'a major fan' of the newsprint patriarch: 'When the project is annoascii117nced, do not be sascii117rprised if yoascii117 see Steve Jobs onstage with Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch, welcoming the Daily to the app world.'