The Daily Goes Dodo: News Corp Retires iPad App On December 15
Ambitious iPad digital newspaper The Daily will be shuttered and the brand folded into other News Corp channels including The Post, the publisher has revealed, with the app ceasing on December 15. "Our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term" News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch said of the decision; the initially iOS-only app was launched with no lack of fanfare back in February 2011, described as the first way to "true news discovery" on Apple's tablet.
"From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties. Under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Col Allan and the business and digital leadership of Jesse, I know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself. I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily" Rupert Murdoch, chairman, News Corp
Initially, The Daily was available as a free resource to encourage users to work the digital newspaper into their lives; a paywall was erected a few months later, while versions of the app slowly followed on for iPhone, select Android tablets through a deal with Verizon, and Amazon's Kindle Fire.
Although stories were available online for the purposes of sharing, their links were not publicly broadcast as a matter of course. Instead, they played second-fiddle to articles consumed via the app, existing online as ways for non-subscribers to read recommended content.
Most importantly, however, cash from actual subscribers proved in short supply. As a result, founding Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Jesse Angelo will take the helm of The New York Post, while "technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post." It's unclear how many of the roughly 120 current employees will not find new work amid the restructuring.