Murdoch’s ‘immersive and unique’ Daily – “It’s a newspaper not a website”
A little later than expected Rupert Murdoch personally launched News Corp’s $30 million iPad investment yesterday, The Daily:
“There is a growing segment of the population here and around the world that is educated and sophisticated but they do not read national print newspapers or watch television news,” he said. “But they do consume media. And they expect content tailored to their specific interests anytime anywhere.
“Our target audience is the 50 million people who are expected to own tablets this year,” Murdoch continued, adding that there would be costs of $500,000 a week going forward.
He went on to describe The Daily as “an entirely new category of delivery and consumption… the most immersive and unique experience available.
“It’s no secret that I’ve been a champion of the news business throughout my life, and today’s announcement gives me great confidence in its future.”
An interesting exchange during the launch sheds some light on advertising opportunities as seen by Murdoch and his team:
Q: How do you balance a subscription model with a large audience that advertisers want?
Murdoch: “They’d pay a much lower rate per thousand if it was free. They realise it’s something that people want.” And we can tell them more about who sees it. “It’s not just scattered out there… We’ll draw a better class of advertiser, and a better rate.”
Q: What’s the split between ad and subscription revenue?
Jon Miller, chief digital officer at News Corp: “Subscription will be larger at start, and then eventually 50-50 – which is the magic number.”
A two-week free trial of the product is initially available, sponsored by Verizon. Then the price is 99 cents a week, or a $39.99 annual subscription. There is not yet clarification over whether Apple is taking its regular 30% cut from subscription sales.
There is also speculation that Apple may share more subscriber information with The Daily. If Apple were to change its stance on either point it would quickly see all other publishers demanding equal treatment.
A comment (on a News Corp-owned news website) indicates that there may be some way to go yet with pricing models: “Long time WSJ subscriber here, but I’m not going to pay over and over for the same content on every type of device I might tend to use (not that I was going to buy and iPad in the first place). I can pay to get the Journal at home, pay again to access it online, pay more to get more of it online, and now this, and no doubt an eventual Android version. And I almost forgot the Kindle edition.
“Great paper, great content. Charge one price for it and let consumers pick (and easily switch) delivery medium. Otherwise your user base is going to be fragmented.
“I don’t see this ending well.”
Significantly this is described by News Corp as “a newspaper, not a website” produced daily like a traditional newspaper, but it can be flexible – “this is not a once-a-day static product.”
Rupert Murdoch added: “With The Daily, we are taking the best of traditional journalism – competitive shoe-leather journalism and a skeptical eye – and combining it with the best of technology, such as 360-degree photographs.
“The iPad demands that we completely rethink our craft. The Daily is not a legacy brand moving from the print to the digital world… We believe The Daily will be the model for how stories are told in the digital age.”
Content and features include:
- Over 100 pages of original news, life, entertainment, opinion and sports – every single day of the year
- Original video content
- A selection of articles read aloud
- 360-degree photos you can explore by swiping
- Immersive photography
- Interactive charts, info-graphics and clickable “hot spots”
- The option to save articles to read later
- Web-friendly versions of articles you can share via Twitter, Facebook and email
- In-app comments – including audio comments
- Your local weather
- Customisable sports filter by team/sport
- Crossword and Sudoku puzzles
Click here to see a demo.