Rupert Murdoch Declares “Digital Renaissance” As News Corp Launches The Daily

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by Mark Joyella | 1:02 pm, February 2nd, 2011

» 5 comments

Rupert Murdoch‘s newest news venture, The Daily, officially launched today with a glitzy New York press availability at the Guggenheim.

“New times demand new journalism,” Murdoch told reporters, and declared his new iPad app a key part of a “digital renaissance” that’s underway, empowering readers in a brand new way. As The New York Times reports, “Mr. Murdoch indicated that with The Daily he was targeting a generation of consumers who do not read national newspapers or watch television news, but do consume media. This generation, he said, expects ‘content tailored to their specific interests to be available anytime, anywhere.’ He added, ‘I’m convinced that in the tablet era, there’s room for a fresh and robust voice.’”

The Daily app will cost 99 cents a week or $39.99 a year, and comes after a massive investment–in dollars and manpower, including a huge roster of journalists. As Wired reports:

Murdoch views The Daily as his shot at bringing News Corp. into the iPad age, which he clearly views as a possible “savior” for the industry.

The Daily is staffed by cadre of News Corp. vets, including former New York Post managing editor Jesse Angelo. Mike Nizza, formerly the editor of AOL News, is the publication’s magazine’s editor.

What do you get for your buck a week? Murdoch’s team says you’ll get digital video and about a hundred pages of news content each day.

Watch the interview of Murdoch from Fox News below:

launch, rupert murdoch, The Daily

BFD

“The Daily app will cost 99 cents a week or $39.99′

Seems pricey.
I’m used to free news with gaudy advertising.

Like here!!
Bobomatic

Murdoch seems pretty cool and I probably agree with him on a lot of things, but this one… hmmmmm… not quite so sure. I have a feeling it’s gonna take a lot more than an iPad app to make this adventure work.
bealzebubba

Like a lot of smart phone apps, this is essentially a website for a specific device. Also, it’s good way to control content…any links that take you out of the app and to a browser window will likely load another NewsCorp website.
http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

As he puts up a paywall on his news websites, thereby preventing them from being relevant on the internet.
J Baustian

The content-for-free model is not working — print newspapers are losing subscribers and advertising by the month, and it is not clear that they can survive. The WSJ website has always been mostly for subscribers and does quite well. The Times of London is now largely for online subscribers.

Murdoch is determined that his publishing empire will be profitable. Nothing wrong with that.

The iPad and other digital tablets are already changing the way we connect to the world. “The Daily” will be a huge success, I predict, and will spawn many imitators. Eventually TV news may also go away, along with the print newspapers.