TechCrunch
Speaking in Munich on Tuesday, James Murdoch confirmed that News Corp.’s iPad newspaper, The Daily, will launch within weeks, saying it “will succeed or fail on the journalism,” not the app’s “bells and whistles.”
Murdoch, the son of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, oversees the company’s operations in Europe and Asia. He appeared for an on-stage interview at the DLD 11 conference.
Robin Wauters reports that Murdoch’s comments included a discussion of pay walls and the company’s strategy for The Daily:
“What we’re focused on is making the experience super simple, at great value, without stopping us from investing in really unique journalism. You know, as opposed to taking your RSS feeds, cutting and pasting wires like other publications. We want to break out of that.”
Murdoch declined to make any predictions about The Daily’s potential sales, except that the company had high hopes for the U.S. market in particular:
“We’re taking this milestone by milestone, and we don’t know what pace to expect, and how the dynamics with the weekly subscription will work.”
The Daily will be available by subscription for $0.99 per week. The publication’s official unveiling was expected last week but was delayed, apparently to give Apple more time to develop and test its new subscription service.
