Mobile Technology

News Corp. reportedly teaming up with Apple for tablet-only newspaper

News Corp. reportedly teaming up with Apple for tablet-only newspaper
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is reportedly teaming up with Apple to develop a tablet-only publication (Murdoch Image: Monika Flueckiger via Flickr)
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is reportedly teaming up with Apple to develop a tablet-only publication (Murdoch Image: Monika Flueckiger via Flickr)
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is reportedly teaming up with Apple to develop a tablet-only publication (Murdoch Image: Monika Flueckiger via Flickr)
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is reportedly teaming up with Apple to develop a tablet-only publication (Murdoch Image: Monika Flueckiger via Flickr)

Over the past decade, the rise and rise of the Internet has seen traditional newspapers scrambling to go online lest they go the way of the dodo – or the Rocky Mountain News. Unfortunately for the publishers, the public became accustomed to getting this online content for free and publishers faced the difficult task of converting readers to a more sustainable subscription model. The increasing popularity of tablets such as the iPad is changing the newspaper landscape yet again and media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is now reportedly teaming up with Apple to develop a tablet-only publication exclusively for the iPad and other tablet devices.

Possibly looking to avoid the difficulty of weaning readers off free content that he faced with publications such as the Wall Street Journal Online, News Corp’s new venture, called The Daily, will be available only via subscription right off the bat.

Murdoch told Fox Business The Daily will launch in beta mode around Christmas before being introduced to the public early next year. With no printing or distribution costs it is expected to cost US$0.99 a week, or about $4.25 a month and will come out seven days a week.

The Guardian says that Apple has been working with News Corp. on the project and that, even though iOS 4.2 went public just yesterday, it is already aiming at a mid-December release for iOS 4.3 that will enable the publication to be dispatched automatically to an iPad. There is also speculation the update would usher in recurring subscriptions for apps through iTunes and that Steve Jobs would join Murdoch on stage at a press event to launch the publication.

According to Women’s Wear Daily, Jesse Angelo, formerly the managing editor of The New York Post, is working full-time on the project, which is expected to eventually comprise a newsroom of around 100 staffers. As well as traditional print journalists, The Daily will also concentrate on producing video content, as evidenced by the choice of Steve Alperin, a producer at ABC News, as one of the three managing editors.

Angelo reportedly wants The Daily to have a tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence, while Murdoch told the Australian Financial Review (AFR) that the new publication would be a bit like The New York Post, with a similar attitude and element of humor, only national. There will also be no foreign bureaus, and there aren’t even plans for a D.C. bureau at the moment. Murdoch did say that the publication would campaign on many issues, nominating U.S. education as one of the first topics.

Murdoch also told the AFR that he initially wanted to call the publication The Daily Planet but that DC comics wasn’t amused.

6 comments
6 comments
Steve Lane
I am disappointed with Steve Jobs teaming up with Rupert Murdoch. Fox news is the GOP propaganda machine and the idea of polluting any of my Apple products with that excrement is revolting to me. I get my news from a wide variety of sources covering the political spectrum but Fox simply makes stuff up or deliberately distorts so called facts to push the GOP/Neocon line. I fully expect The Daily to push the same agenda Never on my Mac. Never on my iPod or iPad. You don\'t need money that badly Steve. I hope you had a good shower after your meeting with Murdoch.
rik.warren
I am extremely disappointed Apple would lean to the sleazeball FOX News Networks for content. What a disgusting thought that hateful ideology will have another outlet. Rik in Atlanta
Clive
I have Fox news on my TV via Foxtel subscription but discontinued watching it owing to it\'s biased & heavily editorialised content so I am surely not going to subscribe to it on any portable device though the principle is highly attractive.
I will wait for a more factual & untainted offering before I subscribe.
Wally3178
Reporting of News events is a social responsibility of the media and should not incur any charge where production costs are negligible or non-existant.

Seems to me that Apple is implementing a long held doctrine of user pays. Their implementation by stealth of elements to enable the plan have been appearing in their updates and indications that recurring subscriptions for apps will appear in release 4.3. I deeply regret getting my iPhone. I can\'t communicate using bluetooth with any other devices with the exception of my in-car, I have software downloaded by stealth (Games Centre) and I can\'t remove software (Stocks & Games Centre) because Apple have decreed that I must have it. My Apple is being replaced by an Android or MS7 phone in the next week or so and I will never touch Apple again.
WilGreen
I am truly delighted to see that Apple has had the insight and wisdom of teaming up with the superb Rupert Murdoch oranization. Fox has always been at the vanguard of serious and unbiased news distribution and I look forward to having the opportunity of receiving \"fair & balanced\" news and opinion delivered to my iPad regularly. That in itself is reason enough to purchase it.
Steve Lane
There is no truth in the malicious rumor that the ANP and Steve Jobs are planning an iPad version of \"Mien Kampf\"


Or is there????