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Stop The Presses! First iPad newspaper delayed

Paul Kafka writes for All Things D that the iPad's first subscription-based newspaper app -- Rupert Murdoch's The Daily -- has been delayed. And it's Apple's fault.
Written by Jason D. O'Grady, Contributor

Paul Kafka writes for All Things D that the iPad's first push newspaper -- Rupert Murdoch's 99-cent-per-week The Daily -- has been delayed:

Apple and News Corp. have made a joint decision to push back next week’s planned launch, according to sources familiar with the companies’ plans. The delay is supposed to give Apple time to tweak its new subscription service for publications sold through its iTunes platform.

Devin Coldewey reports for TechCrunch that The Daily has been delayed by “weeks, not months”

But the word is that Apple’s not ready to go live, and they’ve caused News Corp to delay the launch until such a time as the feature is actually complete...

the source of this information has shared that the delay is on the order of weeks, not months. Or at least, that’s when they’ll announce the next delay.

It makes perfect sense that the delay is on Apple's end if you think about it. How could an entirely new app subscription model roll out next week when the plumbing isn't present in iOS? The push-daily, pay-weekly subscription model isn't in the currently shipping iOS 4.2, and hooks haven't (yet) been found in iOS 4.3b1 which was released yesterday to Apple developers.

I'm guessing that Apple simply removed the new subscription feature from the first iOS 4.3 beta, but that it will appear in either beta 2 or 3 -- or one of the last builds before The Daily ships.

I bet that iOS 4.3 will be released to coincide with the launch of The Daily -- and that it's more than a month off.

What's your take on push newspapers? Would you pay a buck a week?

(Printing Press photo: Threedonia, The Daily screenshots: Poynter)

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