App subscriptions coming to the iPad, say hello to push news
Murdoch told Fox Business:
News Corp. has spent the last three months assembling a newsroom that will soon be about 100 staffers strong. The Daily will launch in beta mode sometime around Christmas, and will be introduced to the public on the iPad and other tablet devices in early 2011.
It is expected to cost 99 cents a week, or about $4.25 a month. It will come out — as the name suggests — seven days a week. The operation is currently working out of the 26th floor of the News Corp. Building on Sixth Avenue in a space that looks like a veritable construction zone. The staff’s permanent home will be on the ninth floor, and they’ll move down once it’s ready.
Interestingly, there will be no “print edition” or “web edition” of The Daily.
According to a piece in The Guardian, Apple engineers helped News Corp build a key feature of the next-generation newspaper, the ability to push it to subscribers. In other words, instead of having to launch the app and download the latest version of the newspaper each day (as you would with say, WSJ or NYT), the most recent edition of The Daily would be downloaded in the background as soon as it's released.
The service isn't "iPad only" as originally rumored, but will also work on a growing number of tablet-style computers.
John Gruber postulates that The Daily will introduce a new recurring subscription billing model at the iTunes Store:
this is not something like iBooks — there is no central “iNews” or “Newsstand” app from Apple. Rather, it’s a new subscription billing option for apps — true recurring subscriptions — paid through your iTunes account.
Gruber reports that The Daily will be launched at a special media event next month hosted by Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch.
Will you buy The Daily?
What will differentiate it from the metric buttload of content that's already available on the Internet -- for free? I'm not saying I wouldn't subscribe, but $52 per year isn't exactly an impulse purchase, either.
What's your take on paid, subscription-based content for the iPad? Would you pay $0.99/week for The Daily?