Murdoch's iPad Daily Newspaper

This article looks at the eagerly anticipated launch of Rupert Murdoch's The Daily Newspaper which will be exclusive on the iPad and will include content from around 150 journalists from newspaper titles such as The New York Times, Dow Times and other News Corp titles. By launching the newspaper on a digital format, Murdoch is trying to 'revolutionise news coverage', in the way the Sun did for tabloid journalism in the 1970s and Fox News did for television in the last decade.

In addition, the fact that Murdoch has invested $30m in the venture suggests that he is trying to advance and be a market leader, as insiders in News Corp have labelled the product, "the future of journalism". The fact that content will be selected from elsewhere at News Corp, creates a powerful blend of popular titles such as Fox News, Wall Street Journal and the altogether more racy New York Post.

Rupert Murdoch described his latest venture as a "game changer" , though he also trying to charge consumers for online access – the Times has a paywall – and Apple's "make consumers pay" ecology is a perfect match for his product. By merging with Apple, News Corp will try to generate more profit and will cater for one device, which will hopefully avoid the need to produce content, say for a number of devices.

What is also unclear is how far the Daily will act as a "walled garden". Will it be easy to link to the external content referred to in the Daily's news items? And will it be possible to link into the Daily's content via an iPad? Significantly, no Daily content will be available on the open internet, thus greatly restricting the pool of potential consumers.

News Corp says it has no plans to bring the Daily to the UK, even though the company is in the process of bidding for BSkyB, and the logic of that purchase would be to create a similarly integrated Times/Sun/Sky News product. Doing so, though, would raise the hackles of competitors worried about News Corp's power, while in the US the company is simply one large player among several media conglomerates.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/feb/02/murdoch-ipad-daily-news-corp?INTCMP=SRCH