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Murdoch's The Daily Could Be Kaput By Fall

Murdoch's The Daily Could Be Kaput By Fall

July 12, 2012
When it arrived for iPad, many felt it would change how people would read the news each morning. Now, News Corp’s The Daily could soon be headed to the history books, according to news first reported by The New York Observer. First launched in February 2011, the iPad daily arrived with great promise. Eighteen months later, however, The Daily is hemorrhaging $30 million per year. Because of this, News Corp. has placed the publication “on watch,” and will reassess its position following this year’s presidential election on November 6. This news follows reports earlier this month that Rupert Murdoch, New Corp. CEO and chairman, plans on splitting the company in two.

So what went wrong?

Assuming The Daily’s days are numbered, I have some ideas why it failed to attract iPad customers. In fact, the reasons are the same as the ones I suggested last August, when I decided to no longer subscribe to the publication. And no, the reason isn’t Murdoch. The Daily’s weakness has always been the competition, which offers timely news on the iPad for nothing. These competitors include: the Zite Personalized Magazine, Flipboard, Pulse News, among others. People also no longer seem to have, or want to spend, the time scanning through boring news articles only to find the one or two they actually find interesting to read. As such, readers today want a publication that is flexible enough to offer only the content from topics they want to see. Finally, these customers want that content to change on a constant basis and not just once per day. On all these points, The Daily has struck out. This doesn’t mean that I’ll be happy to see The Daily go. Rather, the Daily proved the iPad to be a terrific way to read in-depth news, which caused many of us to finally cancel our paper subscriptions. Unfortunately, that probably wasn't enough, even at just $0.14 per day. Why do you feel The Daily is likely to die less than two years after it arrived? Source: The New York Observer

Mentioned apps

Free
Zite Personalized Magazine
Zite Personalized Magazine
Zite, Inc.
Free
The Daily for iPhone
The Daily for iPhone
The Daily Holdings, Inc.
Free
The Daily
The Daily
The Daily Holdings, Inc.
Free
Flipboard: Your Social News Magazine
Flipboard: Your Social News Magazine
Flipboard Inc.
Free
Pulse News for iPad
Pulse News for iPad
Alphonso Labs Inc

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