News Corp. today is holding a media event to launch its tablet-focused news publication, The Daily, which will initially be made available for the iPad. The event is scheduled to kick off at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City at 11:00 AM Eastern Time, or just about 30 minutes from now.
The Daily is offering a live video stream of the introduction on its website, where it has also announced that the application will go live in the App Store at noon Eastern Time, following the event.
Watch at 11 a.m. Eastern Time today as News Corporation unveils The Daily, featuring special guest Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet Services from Apple. Check back later today for our full web site. The Daily will be available on the App Store starting at 12 p.m. EST.
Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services, will be presenting at the event, presumably to discuss Apple's behind-the-scenes work to develop support for recurring billing to users' iTunes Store accounts. The Daily has been reported to be priced at $0.99 per week, which would be automatically billed directly to users' iTunes Store accounts rather than using separate payment methods.
In addition to The Daily's video stream, we will be updating this article with coverage as the media event unfolds.
Event Updates
- Those present at the event note that the audience is relatively small, possibly due to weather issues in New York City.
- Gizmodo has published purported details on The Daily, confirming many of the rumored details including pricing of $0.99 per week or $39.99 per year.
- Event underway. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch on stage. Thanking Steve Jobs for changing industries and developing the iPad. Welcomes Eddy Cue...we'll hear from him in a few minutes.
- "The iPad demands that we completely re-imagine our craft."
- There is a substantial market of people who do not read traditional newspapers but do consume media and expect it at their fingertips. We're going to bring the magic of newspapers to The Daily, and we must make the business of news gathering and editing viable again.
- The opportunity is enormous, and in the tablet era, there is room for a fresh and new voice.
- We can offer The Daily for only 14 cents per day, bringing a polished news magazine to our readers. The Daily's success will be determined by its utility and originality, and we will work tirelessly toward those goals.
- Congratulations and thank you to our friends at Apple and those involved with putting this project together.
- Introducing The Daily's executive team (Jon Miller, Greg Clayman, Jesse Angelo) to show off the publication.
- Discussing how the iPad allows different methods of telling stories...immersive 360-degree photos, audio, video clips. Showing off a live demo while discussing.
- Navigation utilizes "The Carousel"...tiles represent each story, swipe through like Cover Flow. Various options for auto-play, shuffle stories. Video anchors highlighting top stories, some stories available read aloud. Articles can be shared via Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.
- The Daily can pull in HTML5 content from the web and also link out to external sites. Built-in Twitter feeds can pull in content.
- Apps and games section, sports sections. Showing off Super Bowl feature, options for customizing favorite teams to follow.
- Publishes to iPad each morning, and can update throughout the day with breaking news.
- First two weeks are free courtesy of Verizon.
- Introducing Apple's Eddy Cue.
- "Thrilled to be here". In the last year, the iPad has defined a whole new category of device. Over 15 million iPads sold. Over 9,000 news apps available for iOS devices. Over 200 million news apps have been downloaded so far.
- Rupert has built an amazing team of reporters, editors, and designers, and leveraged News Corp.'s resources to develop something new.
- It's amazing that something of this production value can be done every single day.
- iPad customers can download The Daily today. One-click billing...your choice of $0.99 per week of $39.99 per year.
- We think iPad customers are really going to embrace it.
- Turning it back to Jon Miller for a photo op, and then Q&A.
Q&AQ: How is back content handled? Large filesizes?
A: Angelo: Everything is on the web through our sharing functions. We're working on search and archiving.
Q: When will recurring billing be available to other magazines?
A: Cue: Available today on the iPad, and we have a great relationship with other publishers. There will be an announcement soon.
Q: Advertising?
A: Miller: We're working on some really innovative ways to show off their brands.
Q: Metrics for success?
A: Murdoch: When we're selling millions. Ambitions are very big, but costs are low. So financially, the metric is quite low, but we're looking much bigger than that. We've invested $30 million that will be written off in our latest results. But we'll be running at less than $500,000 a week without subscription and advertising income.
Q: Can you talk about the recent developments regarding shifting content purchases to in app purchases?
A: Cue: You'll here from us soon, but we want customers to be able to get content either from us or from others' sites.
Q: Breaking news element? How do you break in real-time, and how do you decide what's worth breaking in for?
A: Angelo: We have a lot of different ways to handle it. We have tickers, can integrate Twitter feeds, can drop in a new front page whenever we want. But as a consumer I don't like pages that change every five minutes. So there will be a balance.
Q: Political tone of The Daily?
A: Angelo: We believe this a new era, and we want a new brand and a new voice. In terms of our editorial page, we're patriotic. We believe in free ideas, and free people. In terms of specific issues, read our editorial pages. You'll be surprised.
Q: Why focusing on The Daily rather than using an existing brand?
A: Murdoch: The Wall Street Journal was one of the first paid apps to be on the iPad, and it made me excited to pursue this project.
Q: How long do you anticipate exclusive distribution for the iPad? Does this marry News Corp and Apple?
A: Murdoch: As other tablets get established, we will develop the technology to get on them. We expect to be on all the major tablets. This year, and maybe next year, belong to Apple, but that's just a market judgment.
Q: Has Steve Jobs said anything to you in the last few days about the project?
A: Murdoch: He did call me last week and said that he believed the app was really terrific.
Q: Discoverability? Apps aren't indexed on the web, so how will people discover it?
A: Cue: People have downloaded 10 billion apps, so they're not having a hard time discovering these things. Miller: We wanted to make a really great experience
Q: Will stories be available on the Web?
A: Miller: It will be mirrored on the Web, but we expect the main consumption to be through the app. Angelo: You can't do everything you do in the app on the Web. So we'll do what we can on the Web, and we do want to be there.
Q: Will Web content be free?
A: Angelo: No, we don't expect that. If you share a link with someone, they'll be able to see that free of charge, but you won't be able to go to thedaily.com and just browse.
Q: Demographics?
A: Angelo: Our demographic is everybody.
Wrapping up. iPads preloaded with the demo available for attendees to view.
The Daily is now available in the App Store.
