Who Is The Daily For?

Subject: Who Is The Daily For? Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:26 pm

So, now that the Daily is out there, who is it for? Who will read this bold new experiment in journalism and why?

First, let me state that we just saw a sea change in journalism as
its practiced online. Murdoch’s deep pockets have pushed through
something publishers have tried to do for about two years now – namely
create a compelling, interactive news source for tablet users. If I may
be so bold, I would equate the efforts by Popular Science and titles
that previously attempted to move to the iPad as the 1.0, pre-Internet
CD-ROM days. The content was static and the old methods – commissioned
text, carefully laid out on a page, released monthly at a premium price –
are now over. That said, I wouldn’t wager the Daily will be the best or
most popular of these new “streaming” newspapers but I do suspect that
for the first few years it will be the most popular.

First, the Daily features a fire-and-forget subscription. Once the
initial two-week free period is over, fans of the daily will be able to
pay $40 for a daily newspaper put out by an arguably strong team of
journalists. The Daily seems like the sort of newspaper you read on the
couch after work and not on the train before work and the images,
design, and Murdoch’s statements about the “wit and humor” of the
stories point to stories inspired by the blogosphere rather than the AP
Style Guide.

Another interesting thing: You’ll notice that the only real
customization appears in the Sports section. News Corps’ private game
preserve is Wall Street and once you convince the millions of
chest-thumpers who subscribe to the WSJ to also subscribe to the Daily,
you’ve got quite a revenue base. Add in the interactive features and
you’ve pretty much hit on the early adopter/rich guy sweet spot.

I don’t know where Americans will read the Daily. We won’t read it on
the train, that’s for sure. So the assumption is that this is an “end
of day” read or, if you’re at work, a guilty pleasure with a coffee and a
dozen doughnuts.

News Corp knows how to sell news. Whether you agree with some of
their channels and outlets or not, they deal out supremely popular
content produced on a daily basis. While I’d say I’m worried about who
they’ll sell the Daily to, I believe that the subset of users who read
the NY Times and other news sources in Safari on the iPad will welcome a
move to a standalone app. Provided the content quality stays high and
the news value is there, this could be the first iPad app to beat Angry
Birds and, more important, truly bring journalism into the 21st century.

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