The Daily, the much publicized first iPad only newspaper created by Ruport Murdock, is going to shut down just shy of two years. All Things D reports that the publication is being shuttered because it “could not find a large enough audience quickly enough” to make the endeavor sustainable long term. Last year it was reported that it only had 120,000 subscribers at a time when it needed 500,000.
The Daily launched in February 2011 with a great deal of fanfare and a blessing from Apple, which worked closely with News Corp. to get the paper off the ground. But The Daily never clicked, and struggled to attract subscribers.
The app was initially hampered by technical problems, but The Daily’s key issue was a conceptual one. While the app boasted lots of digital bells and whistles, in the end it was very much a general interest newspaper that seemed to be geared toward people who didn’t really like newspapers. You can’t make that work no matter what kind of platform you use.
Here’s my initial review of The Daily. It was written during the initial technical problems mentioned above. After my trial was over, I didn’t think the content was deep or original enough to warrant the subscription (which I felt was quite reasonable). I had high hopes that the experiment would work to prove that the tablet was a viable platform for subscription content.
That’s a shame. I had hoped they would work out their tech issues. When it was working well I enjoyed it. But the glitches were too often and too time consuming. Plus I feel they missed a great opportunity by delivering local content/ads early in the development.
Oh well – RIP.
$30 million a year….and not one red cent on any kind of graphic commentary….or comic strip. And this from the same operation that launched the Simpsons. Simply amazing!