Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is joining forces with Apple to launch a new iPad-only newspaper called The Daily. This is a whole new newspaper in the form of a dedicated app, designed to exploit the touch-friendliness and multimedia nature of the iPad, with journalistic content not found anywhere else.
[…]
Although details are still mere rumors, it seems users will subscribe each week for 99 cents. Mr Murdoch has said that The Daily is his “No. 1 most exciting project,” and believes the iPad will see massive growth in the coming years.
[…]
If Murdoch expects an iPad to be in every home then he totally misunderstands Apple’s market positioning. Apple products are high-priced, aspirational, and exclusive. Apple isn’t Microsoft. Once upon a time Bill Gates might have wanted a PC on every desk, but Apple’s voodoo simply wouldn’t work if iPads were as commonplace as toasters. […] Most of all, The Daily will have to emulate the same “must-have” coolness as the iPad itself.
[…]
The Daily won’t work if traditional newspaper content is simply packaged into an iPad app. What’s needed is a modern style of journalism that’s in-tune with the tech-savvy, switched-on iPad userbase.
I imagine I’m in the minority of iPad owners who have an even mild conservative slant. Most of us guys/gals wouldn’t touch your politics and newspapers with a ten foot pole (WSJ excluded). You’re going to need to resist every root instinct you have when putting together this paper, so I’m going to give you some tips about how to sell to a market that’s begging for a subscription iPad paper.
I am very excited about this and bring no bias into it. Instead, I will reserve judgement of The Daily’s political slant until I read it.
to #30
how exactly do “most” Americans cinsider Apple to be too expensive when MOST Americans own apple products? iPods and iPhones are absolutely everywhere and iPads soon following. Ask Dvorak how many he wagered would be sold this year. He way underestimated demand, as do you
The iPad is not really a computer (i.e. not a production machine). It is just a cash register directly from you pocket to Steve Jobs. Ka-Ching. Penny at a time adds up.
But then Jobs never cared about computing. Gates, despite my various misgivings, sold an operating system which allowed hundreds of thousands of big and tiny firms to make and sell computers and for each of us to make our own computers. It was a platform that many people could make hardware for. The Apple II was such an open system. Then the Mac.
What Jobs did, with the Mac, was to go backward to big iron days with a closed manufacturing system either limited to or tightly controlled/spec’d by Apple.
That, too, is the nature of Murdoch. Control, control, control. The iPad is a consumer control and skim-off-of device, not a contribution to the community. I vote for Android tabs, and maybe even Windows tabs, though since Gates left active control several years ago, MS has gone under the control of the marketers.
No, not a penny for those FASCISTS !!!
A great idea, after all we know the iPad’s main market is stodgy 70 year old conservatives who watch Bill O’Reilly.