| Media owners aim to bolster iPad capabilities NEW YORK: Major media owners including News Corp, Time Warner and Comcast are rapidly increasing their presence on tablet devices like Apple's iPad. News Corp is close to launching a "tablet-only product", possibly named The Daily, costing an estimated 99¢ (€0.74; £0.63) per week, and primarily targeted at a US audience. In an interview with the Fox Business Network, Rupert Murdoch, ceo of News Corp, said this was"certainly" among the company's "most exciting" projects. The Wall Street Journal already boasts an iPad app and alternative for Google's Android, now powering Samsung's Galaxy, which has sold 600,000 units since hitting store shelves in early November. "We think the digital arena is a very important one ... particularly the mobile platforms," Chase Carey, News Corp's president/coo, said on a call with analysts this month. "The iPad brings a whole new dimension of opportunities to the digital arena ... But, look, [the] scarcity of our products is a tremendous value. I think we need to make sure we manage that product." Elsewhere, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group - active in sectors from air transport to telecoms - is reportedly planning an iPad-exclusive publication. Virgin is expected to unveil the title, covering culture, travel and business, at a New York press conference on 30 November. Time Warmer has also built iPad applications for People Magazine, Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune, in recognition of the fact such appliances can augment its "Content Everywhere" initiative. This means customers can access material in a variety of forms, and utilises pricing models from single copy purchases to combined print and digital options. "If you download an iPad version of one of our Time Inc. magazines, you know that it's a rich and compelling consumer experience," said ceo Jeff Bewkes. "We're confident that as the competition increases in that space, every tablet manufacturer will want to give its consumers the same range of choices and the same value." Turning to TV, Comcast has recently rolled out XfinityTV, an on-demand internet service offering films and TV shows, and should extend it further going forward. "Before the end of this year we will be launching the XfinityTV remote app which will work on all the iPhones and iPads and eventually, right after they come out on the Android based tablets," said ceo Brian Roberts. "The iPad gives us a chance to now start from scratch with the user interface that is using web technology, not cable box technology." Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable is "on the cusp" of revealing tools employing the iPad in new ways. "In the not-too-distant future, our customers will have the opportunity to use their iPad as a remote control," said ceo Glenn Britt. "We're working on infrastructure that could enable customers to enjoy our entire video product on any IP-connected device in the home." TiVo has also created an application allowing subscribers to browse available content, manage recording, discover more information and post comments about programmes and films. "Many others in the market have announced iPad app, we believe these are nothing more than glorified remote controls," said Tom Rogers, its ceo. "The TiVo iPad app will be an experience that is context-aware and works uniquely in tandem with what you are doing on the television screen at the same time." One key motivation for these plans is the affluence of the target audience. The Pew Internet & American Life Project suggested 9% of Americans earning at least $75,000 a year own a tablet at present, above the 3% average. Data sourced from Fox Business News/Seeking Alpha; additional content by Warc staff, 26 November 2010 |
Rupert Murdoch, head of the media giant News Corp, and Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, are preparing to unveil a new digital "newspaper" called the Daily at the end of this month, according to reports in the US media.
The collaboration, which has been secretly under development in New York for several months, promises to be the world's first "newspaper" designed exclusively for new tablet-style computers such as Apple'siPad, with a launch planned for early next year.
Intended to combine "a tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence", the publication represents Murdoch's determination to push the newspaper business beyond the realm of print.
According to reports, there will be no "print edition" or "web edition"; 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 devices.
With no printing or distribution costs, the US-focused Daily will cost 99 cents (62p) a week.
According to the US elite fashion industry journal Women's Wear Daily, the Murdoch-Jobs "newspaper" will be run from the 26th floor of the News Corp offices in New York, where 100 journalist have been hired, including Pete Picton, an online editor from the Sun, as one of three managing editors. The editor of the Daily has not been announced, but observers are assuming it will be Jesse Angelo, the managing editor of the New York Post and rising star in the News Corp firmament.
Angelo, who was at school with Murdoch's son Lachlan, was formerly editor of the Post's business section and has recruited the tabloid's gossip columnist Richard Johnson to run the Daily's Los Angeles bureau. Other staff include Sasha Frere-Jones, former music critic at theNew Yorker, who will oversee arts and culture. News Corp's pattern of hiring for the project suggests that video will be a major component of the new publication.
The 79-year-old Murdoch is said to have had the idea for the project 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 that the Daily, properly executed, will demonstrate that consumers are willing to pay for high- quality, original content online.
Murdoch believes the iPad is going to be a "game changer" and he has seen projections that there will be 40 million iPads in circulation by the end of 2011. A source said: "He envisions a world in which every family has a iPad in the home and it becomes the device from which they get their news and information. If only 5% of those 40 million subscribe to the Daily, that's already two million customers."
But Murdoch's success with internet ventures is mixed. The Timesrecently said it had gained more than 100,000 paying customers for its web edition, while the Wall Street Journal now has more than two million readers behind a partial paywall. But MySpace, once the leading social networking site, which Murdoch paid $580m for in 2005, is now an also-ran in the field, and Murdoch is running counter to current thinking that web publications need print editions to justify themselves to advertisers.
Apple has been expected to announce a subscription plan for newspapers based on the model of its iTunes music download service, but some publishers have been unwilling to let Apple in as an intermediary or let it control pricing the way iTunes has done in the music business.
"Obviously, Steve Jobs sees this as a significant revenue stream for Apple in the future," Roger Fidler, head of digital publishing at the Donald W Reynolds Journalism Institute, told the San Jose Mercury News recently.
And with Apple expected to dominate the tablet market until compelling competitors are introduced, Murdoch may have no choice but to ride with Jobs. According to Women's Wear Daily, Jobs is "a major fan" of the newsprint patriarch: "When the project is announced, don't be surprised if you see Steve Jobs onstage with Rupert Murdoch, welcoming the Dailyto the app world."
