iDaily Could Be Game Changer

Out of adversity comes innovation, and perhaps nothing more illustrates that leap forward than the Daily, a joint venture by Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch to offer an iPad news publication exclusively via download.

It could provide a much-needed digital game changer which the print newspaper industry, battered by online information competition and sharp advertising declines, has sought desperately during these recession years.

Simply put, the idea is to have the news you want at your fingertips whenever and wherever you want it – something dead-tree publishing by its very format could never do. The Daily could be the business model for news publishers now and in the future.

The collaboration between Murdoch (right), head of the media giant News Corp., and Jobs, chief executive of Apple, was done secretly in New York for several months.

The Daily promises to be the world's first “newspaper” designed exclusively for new tablet-style computers such as Apple's iPad, with a launch planned for early next year.

Intended to combine “a tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence,” the publication represents Murdoch's desire to push the newspaper business beyond the realm of print in the 21st century.

There will be no “print edition” or “web edition,” or competing/overlapping formats. The central innovation, developed with assistance from Apple engineers, will be to dispatch the publication automatically to an iPad or any of the growing number of similar tablet devices.

With no printing or distribution costs, the United States-focused Daily will cost 99 cents a week.

Reports say it will operate from the 26th floor of the News Corp. offices in New York, where 100 journalists have been hired, including Chris D’Amico, former managing editor of The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper (and a previous employer of this author).

Murdoch, 79, whose News Corp. owns the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, is said to have had the idea for the Daily after studying a survey that suggested readers spent more time immersed in their iPads than they did – comparatively speaking — on the Internet, where unfocused surfing is typical.

Sources say Murdoch is committed to the project, in part, because he believes the Daily will demonstrate consumers are willing to pay for high- quality, original content online.

That position runs counter to current thinking that Web publications need print editions to justify themselves to advertisers.

Putting aside personalities, we, at WMB, see merit to the Murdoch-Jobs partnership because it represents the entrepreneurial spirit that leads to innovation. You need visionaries with leadership and daring to make advances regardless of the type of industry.

Murdoch and Jobs (left) have proven themselves in previous endeavors, so there is no reason to believe the Daily cannot succeed. This product is not a bridge (bandage?) between online and print news editions; it’s something completely different under the sun.

WMB believes there always will be a place for good journalism, regardless of the format, so why not increase access for the average consumer. Projections are there will be 40 million iPads in circulation by the end of 2011.

A source says of Murdoch: “He envisions a world in which every family has an iPad in the home and it becomes the device from which they get their news and information. If only 5 percent of those 40 million subscribe to the Daily, that's already 2 million customers.”

WMB believes there’s no fuzzy math in that assessment, just the logic of a businessman who sees a big opportunity within reach through the marriage of smart technology and quality content by professionals.

There also could be some new, strong branches for dead-tree journalists sidelined by the abrupt shake-up in the print news industry. While many of these professionals remain computer savvy enough to change with the times, their employers were stuck in the information highway’s slow lane.

The Daily could be the catalyst, or game changer, for competitive journalism on a scale not seen since the days of multiple daily papers in America’s largest cities. It could be the “what next” for journalism.

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