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News Corporation Shutting Down Digital Newspaper 'The Daily'

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,482
30,719



As part of a lengthy press release sharing details on its separation into two independent publicly traded companies, News Corporation announced that it will be shutting down its digital newspaper The Daily on December 15. The Daily launched in early 2011 at a media event hosted by Rupert Murdoch and Apple's Eddy Cue, with the iPad-focused newspaper positioned as a groundbreaking new publishing paradigm priced at just $0.99 per week.

cue_murdoch_the_daily.jpg
Apple's Eddy Cue (left) and News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch at the launch of The Daily​
But rumors of The Daily's potential cancelation began surfacing earlier this year as the publication continued to draw revenues well below that needed to sustain the initiative, and even a 30% cut in staff was not enough to save it.
[E]ffective immediately, Jesse Angelo, the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Daily and long-time Executive Editor of The New York Post, will assume the role of Publisher of The New York Post. As part of a digital restructuring initiative, the company will cease standalone publication of The Daily iPad app on December 15, 2012, though the brand will live on in other channels. Technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post.

Mr. Murdoch said: "From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties. Under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Col Allan and the business and digital leadership of Jesse, I know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself. I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily."
Click to expand...
Aside from its attempts to make its mark as a new newspaper publishing model, The Daily also led the way for Apple's In App Subscription effort, allowing users to simply and easily sign up for recurring content subscriptions directly within apps and billed to their iTunes Store accounts.

Article Link: News Corporation Shutting Down Digital Newspaper 'The Daily'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/03/news-corporation-shutting-down-digital-newspaper-the-daily/
M

Matthew Yohe

macrumors 68020
Oct 12, 2006
2,200
142
I might have considered reading it if I wasn't immediately turned off by the terrible performance of the news "carousel" you were first presented with.
 
Ambrose Chapel

Ambrose Chapel

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2002
1,141
3
Massachusetts
Meanwhile, Marco Arment's The Magazine proved its financial viability after one issue. Eventually one of the traditional publishing companies will figure this out, right?
 
lyngo

lyngo

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2007
851
1,441
Now if I could just disable the Newsstand app :/. I can't even put it into a folder to "hide" it.
 
pvmacguy

pvmacguy

macrumors 65816
Sep 2, 2009
1,114
29
Jax
Guess I'm one of the only ones that subscribed. I enjoyed it and the magazine like style was great. The later revisions after being updated and ditching the carousel made the app way better. It's a shame is going by the wayside.
 
S

scarred

macrumors 6502a
Jul 24, 2011
516
1
At some point content providers need to make money. Is advertising the only way for that to happen? Some smart financial person should stop screwing around on wallstreet and figure this one out and make a bundle. Also, find someone better then Mr. Murdoch to back up your idea.
 
jclardy

jclardy

macrumors 601
Oct 6, 2008
4,153
4,356
I subscribed for a few weeks. The content wasn't bad. App was terrible on the 1st gen iPad - laggy and crashed every few pages.

On iPad 2 it was a lot better, but still annoying that you had to sit and wait while the app downloaded new content. With Newstand it might be better now if it downloads in the background, but I guess the main issue was with the idea - I had pretty much already seen everything in the paper already, the day before because of sites like Twitter.

I did like their daily crosswords though.
 
D

davidjearly

macrumors 68020
Sep 21, 2006
2,264
371
Glasgow, Scotland
For me, the software was the problem here. I'm more than happy to pay for quality layouts, design and presentation, but the app was terrible. It improved somewhat after they ditched the carousel but it was still a terrible app.
 
CalMin

CalMin

Contributor
Nov 8, 2007
1,658
2,825
For me the problem was the content. It was lousy. This was not great journalism and IMO they were aiming at the wrong crowd for early adopters. They needed to set the sights a little higher and leave out all of the People magaziney type stuff.
 
ctyrider

ctyrider

macrumors 65816
Jul 15, 2012
1,025
591
I did a trial of The Daily back in the day.. The quality of their original content wasn't good enough to justify paid subscription. The "USA Today" caliber content doesn't cut it, given the wealth of high quality & free online news.

Also, their format with once-a-day static issues may work in a world of printed newspaper.. But it doesn't work online, where people are accustomed to instant and always-on news.

It only makes sense that The Daily failed.
 
S

slstern

macrumors newbie
Apr 6, 2008
2
0
Minnesota
Not Surprised

Besides the fact that there are a number of other sources from which to obtain information, free and otherwise, I could not bring myself to contribute financially to Rupert Murdoch's empire any more than I had to. I think there were a number of potential subscribers who shared concerns about the way the Daily's coverage might be skewed. I get enough "Fair & Balanced" news on the local FOX station.
 
W

winnex

macrumors newbie
May 12, 2009
2
0
Biased, bad product

What a surprise! This was one of the most reactionary publications I have ever seen. Totally biased, a flagship to extremism. Welcome to the trashcan of history. Hope The Daily did bleed money enough to avoid Murdoch to come back with some other piece of garbage like that...
 
R

rnizlek

macrumors 6502
Mar 31, 2004
335
176
Washington, DC
IMO, the quality sank them. I will pay for quality content - I shell out $35 a month for NY Times web + smartphone + tablet access.

All I can say is that in terms of quality writing, the Times they were not. The fact that the editor is going over to the NY Post says everything.
 
G

grahamwright1

Cancelled
Feb 10, 2008
210
202
winnex said:
What a surprise! This was one of the most reactionary publications I have ever seen. Totally biased, a flagship to extremism. Welcome to the trashcan of history. Hope The Daily did bleed money enough to avoid Murdoch to come back with some other piece of garbage like that...
Click to expand...

Interesting you should say that - I never watch Fox (News?) but subscribed to the Daily for a few months and thought it was reasonably fair in it's articles and worth the 99 cents per week. Nice layout, decent content that didn't make me feel I was reading right-wing propaganda, but the lack of background downloads was annoying. When you go into the app you typically had to wait while it refreshed content, but that was my only complaint with it.

Overall, a good first effort from Murdoch and I'll be sorry to see it go.
 
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