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News Corp.'s celebrated tablet newspaper The Daily will lay off 50 of its 170 employees and slash costs by creating all digital pages in the newspaper in vertical format only, rather than designing pages in both vertical and horizontal formats, among other things, reports All Things Digital:
Employees who produce the paper's editorial page and sports coverage will be heavily hit by the layoffs, and the Daily will run skeletal versions of those sections from now on. But the cuts will affect other parts of the Daily, including its design and production staff.

[...]

But people familiar with the paper's plans say it isn't changing other parts of its strategy, including a recent move to produce a weekend edition.
Earlier this month, it was reported that The Daily had been put "on watch" and that the iPad newspaper was losing tens of millions of dollars a year.

Pricing for the iPad version of The Daily is currently set at $0.99 per week or $39.99 per year via In App Subscription, with the iPhone version being offered at roughly half-price on monthly and yearly subscriptions.

Article Link: 'The Daily' Lays Off 30% of Staff, Switches to Vertical-Only Design to Cut Costs
 

Jodles

macrumors regular
Dec 5, 2008
172
3
It's such a cool app, but horrible journalism... Definitely a great way to present news on a tablet device instead of trying to emulate a newspaper format. Just sort the journalism out!
 

iSRS

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2010
468
291
Perhaps...

The should consider selling the app, so to speak. Just a though.
 

tazhombre

macrumors member
Nov 24, 2008
47
62
Vertical only? I use my iPad in horizontal 98% of the time. Guess I won't be considering using it any time soon.
 

JoEw

macrumors 68000
Nov 29, 2009
1,583
1,291
great great platform to deliver news the app has an amazing UI, to bad the articles just suck... It doesn't matter how you present the content, if the content is crap. It won't be successful. The Daily has proven this.
 

tasset

macrumors 6502a
May 22, 2007
572
200
Queue in the Fox News/News Corp/Rupert Murdoch haters in 3...2...1...

Well if the editorials didn't cater to the 1% and iDevice-less rural yokels who support them, perhaps their subscription base could have been sustainable!
I did like the app design though. Shame.
 

Queso

Suspended
Mar 4, 2006
11,821
8
Queue in the Fox News/News Corp/Rupert Murdoch haters in 3...2...1...
Mate, they hacked the voicemail of a brutally murdered teenager, just to get a story. How low would they have to go before you see them for what they are?
 

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,541
1,653
Redondo Beach, California
It's such a cool app, but horrible journalism... Definitely a great way to present news on a tablet device instead of trying to emulate a newspaper format. Just sort the journalism out!

And now that they have fired most of their editorial staff we can expect even worse writing. That is a sure way to die. People only buy a newspaper because they expect better content than they get on the free web sites.
 

riverfreak

macrumors 68000
Jan 10, 2005
1,828
2,288
Thonglor, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon
LOL moment of the day. They're going to save costs by only publishing the digital edition in a vertical format?

News Corp is known for its shoddy and unethical journalism. Is it any wonder they can't hire developers smart enough to separate content from formatting and deliver their crappy product in any format and layout they choose with virtually no effort?

That is just sad and pathetic. They need The Bobs to come in and do some corporate restructuring. Is this good for the company?

Proving once again that mediocrity attracts mediocrity, and then it reproduces.
 

quasinormal

macrumors 6502a
Oct 26, 2007
736
4
Sydney, Australia.
Queue in the Fox News/News Corp/Rupert Murdoch haters in 3...2...1...

Cue in a punch in the face from Wendi.

It is not about hate. It is about News Ltd perverting democracy. I have literally bumped into pre fox/NYT/LT/sky Rupert a couple of times in my younger days. He seemed like a very decent bloke at the time.

Sadly i think age has gotten the better of poor old Rupe. Time for Wendi to kick some liberal butt.
 

BC2009

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2009
2,236
1,372
I got free trials of The Daily several times, but every time it did not keep me engaged enough to even read the issues they gave me for free.

1) It rarely was "up-to-date" when I launched it -- instead I had to wait for it to update to the latest issue

2) The reporting was nothing great except for a couple of articles here and there (I liked their piece on the revolution in Egypt)

3) The layout and design were cool, but I prefer something simpler like the USA Today app's layout (simple sections, tappable videos, horizontal swipe between stories, vertical swipe between pages of same story and advertisements that are easy to dismiss). The Daily added bells and whistles I did not really need.

I wanted to like The Daily, but it has never really kept me engaged.
 

NorCalLights

macrumors 6502a
Apr 24, 2006
597
85
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the problem with The Daily isn't too many layouts... the problem is bad journalism.

Laying off employees hasn't saved the local print newspaper, and it won't save this newfangled digital one either. If News Corp is serious about saving this property, it's time to double down and start publishing the real, compelling journalism that well-educated, young-professional readers are interested in. That's how you grow a readership.

Oh wait... I forgot... real, compelling journalism is at odds with the close-minded political views of the parent company. Good luck...
 

WilliamLondon

macrumors 68000
Dec 8, 2006
1,699
13
Queue in the Fox News/News Corp/Rupert Murdoch haters in 3...2...1...

I'm sure this has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that News Corp is splitting and trying to make the non-broadcast side of the company appear more valuable. They're doing it in other areas of the company, for example, the London Times just increased its price (hugely) and cut its content at the same time.

I'm sure that has nothing at all to do with trying to create a corporation that is lean and looks to be worth more than it actually is, due to excessive cost cutting and short term price increases (intending to drive revenue).

It's a well known trick companies do to make themselves more appealing before a sale or valuation.

Oh, and it's crap journalism, but then so is everything Murdoch owns.
 

Earendil

macrumors 68000
Oct 27, 2003
1,567
24
Washington
Politics and good journalism aside, I hope and assume that "cutting 50 employees" will save 1000x more than it took the one dev and one layout guy to get the horizontal content correct? And yet horizontal content is arguably one of the biggest features of the application. Dear goodness what are they thinking.

I'm no media expert, but I served as the chief photo editor for a student run college paper for a year. It was a weekly, but the bright students I worked with had no problem laying out a 12 page paper in 4-8 hours on a Sunday night before the 6am print. Obviously there are differences of format and quality, but the cost savings, if you're doing it right, can't be THAT much.
 

Aqua Bliss

macrumors 6502
Dec 6, 2010
331
19
Dear Daily, if you change to Vertical only, I am cancelling my subscription. I loathe using my iPad vertically.

Surely this move will cause additional layoffs - pick horizontal for the sake of your few remaining employees.
 
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