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Social sharing on The Daily dropping fast
The Nieman Journalism Lab reports that social sharing from iPad news app The Daily is falling precipitously, according to data from a firm called PostRank. Social sharing is when users share content on networks like Twitter or Facebook; the average number of pieces shared from The Daily on Twitter has fallen from over 200 to under 50 in just the past few months since its launch. There's two sides to this. First, these are obviously not actual readership numbers, and just because readers aren't sharing many articles doesn't mean they're not being read. It's also important to remember that The Daily subscriptions run weekly or yearly, so a certain amount of its readers have already paid for a year of content. However, given that this is one metric of engagement with the fledgling virtual publication, it's probably not a good sign. As Nieman's Joshua Benton says, this follows anecdotal evidence we've heard that the app has been declining despite an early spike in interest. If subscriptions and downloads correlate with these social sharing numbers, The Daily may be in trouble already. [via BetaBeat]
The Daily set to launch in the UK, US edition only
According to The Guardian newspaper, Rupert Murdoch's The Daily will be available in the UK within the first half of this year, but first Apple must introduce its new subscription-based pricing system in the UK. Jon Miller, the chief digital officer of Murdoch's News Corporation, said that it would be "not too long from now" until the news app arrives in western Europe. It's understood, however, that this will simply be the US edition made available outside of the US. There was some conjecture that a British-specific edition would be made available in the future, but The Guardian reports that "... the media giant [News Corp.] emphasized there were no immediate plans for a British edition of the title." The Daily launched in the US on February 2, 2011 and was received with a mixed reaction, particularly by the TUAW team. Check out Steve Sande's, Dave Caolo's and Mel Martin's (first and second) impressions of the electronic newspaper. The Daily has been available as a free trial since its launch, but next week it will cost 99 cents a week or US$39.99 for a year-long subscription. Although News Corp hasn't released any official figures, The Guardian estimates around 5,000 users have signed up for the the year-long subscription. [Via TNW]
The Daily coming to Android tablets this spring?
Been sick with jealousy over all those people reading The Daily on their iPads? Well, it looks like that could all end some time soon if AllThingD's PKafka has heard correctly. Apparently, News Corp's tablet-only magazine / newspaper will be heading to Android this spring (or some time in Q2). Considering the team has gotten quite a bit of help from Apple on the development side (word is Apple also rushed to help them fix some of the early bugs) and was the first to use Apple's new subscription service, that does seem a bit quick, but we're certainly not complaining about more apps coming to those Honeycomb tablets. We just hope the random crashes and slow load times are fixed by then.
iTunes shocker! Apple announces App Store subscriptions
Hot on the heels of the Daily, the oft-rumored Apple subscription service is finally spreading out to the rest of the app store. Love it or lump it, anything currently available in the company's online marketplace, including magazines, newspapers, video, and music, can now be offered on the subscription model. "All we require," said Steve Jobs in the press release, "is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app." (This sounds familiar.) Publishers are also restricted from linking out of the app to locations that allow the user to circumvent the in-app purchase (and publishers can't offer better deals outside of the app store). The rationale here? Apple gets thirty percent off the top off in-app purchases -- enough of a cut, we're guessing, to prompt some bigger publishers to skip the platform altogether (outside purchases, of course, are exempt from this fee). PR after the break.
The Daily trial extended to the end of February
Several TUAW readers have noticed that the trial version of The Daily has been extended through February 28. When the app debuted on February 2, Verizon announced that it was sponsoring a two-week free trial. This also brought forth the rumor of the public release of iOS 4.3 within that time frame. It's been nearly two weeks, but it hasn't happened. So, why has the trial been extended? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below. I think it has less to do with the public release of iOS 4.3 and more with the fact that so many people are becoming disenchanted with The Daily that the publishers want more of a chance to prove themselves before people delete it -- and the potential revenue -- off their iPads completely. [via MacRumors]
Yahoo! announces Livestand for iPad, available first half 2011
If you've been following TUAW's reports about The Daily, you're aware that many of the TUAW bloggers are so fed up with the buggy, crashing newspaper app that they've removed it from their iPads while the app is still free. For me, the crashes and slow loading weren't as much of an irritant as the lack of customizable and local content. I just don't want to pay for horoscopes, fashion news and entertainment gossip that I can't turn off, and the fact that I can't read any local news on the app killed it for me. Yahoo! has apparently been listening, as the struggling internet giant has announced -- but hasn't shipped -- its solution to the problem that is The Daily. It has announced Livestand for iPad, a customizable news app that will be available "in the first half of 2011." There's no word on whether Yahoo! plans to offer the app for free or, as in the case of The Daily, it will be using subscriptions to refill its coffers. Yahoo! wants to capitalize on the huge volume of content that it has available from multiple publishers, the billions of photos available from Flickr and the many advertising agreements it already has in place. The company says that Livestand will be a digital newsstand that is "continuously programmed by a person's interests and contexts." Some of the screenshots (obviously mockups since the app isn't yet available) show local content boxes with top stories, weather and more, all wrapped in a very visual package that is reminiscent of the Flipboard content page. That makes me wonder if it might not just be a better, and more timely, solution to just load Flipboard with RSS feeds of local news from Yahoo! That solution would also make it less likely for me to have to put up with ads that are "data-rich, actionable, even location aware." I'll let you know how my Yahoo! feeds + Flipboard = Local Newspaper experiment works. Perhaps I'll get my own version of Livestand for iPad well before July rolls around. [via MacStories]
The Daily for iPad updated with new feature: It crashes more frequently now
Editor's Note: One tip that may resolve the frequent crashes -- the App Store description for The Daily is now showing a note stating "Current Daily users: Please delete your current app before upgrading to 1.0.1." This is not the way that app updates are supposed to be done. C'mon, News Corp. You're doin' it wrong! I've had a love/hate relationship with The Daily. It was a great idea for a low-priced subscription newspaper, but over time I lost interest in the type of stories offered, and the app was downright unstable. Fellow TUAW blogger Dave Caolo experienced so many crashes and suffered through slow loading of content, and he finally just gave up on the app. A fix was posted last night that claimed to make it faster, more stable and improve the "introduction experience," whatever that means. In my testing last night and today, I can say the app crashes more than Wile E. Coyote. In several instances, the app started up and left me staring at a blank screen. Sometimes the pages showed up. Sometimes they didn't. Sometimes articles had pictures, sometimes they didn't. Apparently the way to ensure it will at least work is to first delete the app while connected to iTunes, then download the updated version and re-install it. Not exactly the "Apple experience" for app updates, is it?
More thoughts on The Daily
I've been reading the News Corp. iPad newspaper The Daily since it came out last week. While my first impressions led to a positive review, the more I use it, the less I like it. First, it is VERY slow to load if it loads at all (an impression shared by others). Recently I'm getting a lot of black screens and am dumped back to the iPad app screen. When it works, the slow load, which is often more than 30 seconds over Wi-Fi, is just too long. The app should at least display a table of contents or top news stories while it downloads so that you don't wind up staring into space. The news content does not appear to be aimed at a serious news reader. The second highlighted category is "gossip." The balance of news to fluff is seriously leaning toward the fluff. Horoscopes, celebrity news and other tabloid content just aren't appealing to this news consumer, and there is no way to turn those sections off. The app itself has a beautiful layout. It's appealing to the eye and easy to navigate. The one exception is the requirement to have to rotate the iPad to portrait from landscape in order to read some stories. That seems just silly, and I hope that will be repaired. There is no tech section -- that's odd for something being sold to iPad owners. There seems to be some tech content under apps and games, but then that section isn't labeled properly.
Talkcast, 7PM PST/10PM EST: Verizon iPhones and The Daily
If it's Sunday night, it must be Talkcast time! Tonight's live show will likely include a sprinkling of Macworld chat, along with other newsy bits from the week. We had Verizon iPhones line up for pre-order, The Daily launch event and another wave of iPad 2 rumors. Also, don't forget that Kelly hosting equals aftershow! Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be, otherwise I'm just talking to myself. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cell phone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords loves her iPad
Here's an interesting example of a shared story from The Daily in which US Representative Gabrielle Giffords proclaims her love of the iPad, and explains how she uses it for work. The Daily's Elizabeth Saab interviewed Rep. Giffords shortly before she was shot in Arizona, and the main topic was the iPad. "It takes me about six to eight hours every week just to get to work," Rep. Giffords said. "Being able to carry an iPad, particularly being able to have all of my documents in the cloud, and be able to access speeches and briefing materials has really made a big difference." Calling herself "kind of a boring person," Rep. Giffords says that she doesn't have any games installed on her iPad, but notes that her office is among the top social networkers in Congress, and they manage all of that with an iPad. Last month, we peeked at the desk of US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who makes good use of his iMac and iPad. Congressman Cantor uses his iPad daily, his office told us, and he enjoys reading his hometown newspaper on the device. Recently, US Senate rules changed to allow Macs into Senate offices with official permission. We all wish Representative Giffords a full and speedy recovery ... her iPad is a part of that process, too.
Reuters staffer spots iPad 2 at The Daily launch event
Imagine, if you will, a high-profile introduction for a major new media product on the iPad; major enough to merit attendance and brief remarks from Apple's Eddy Cue. Let's posit for a moment that the room is filled with professional journalists who make it their business to notice small details that might lead to interesting stories. Consider as well the possibility that some of the Apple team members in attendance might be carrying some product models that are ... unacknowledged, shall we say? Yes, the front runners for the 2011 Phone In A Bar Accidental Scoop Awards are the new team of Apple and Reuters. The party of the first part seems to have brought along an iPad with front-facing camera to today's launch event for The Daily, and a Reuters reporter saw the device in the wild. Reuters says "a source with knowledge of the device" confirmed that this was not a trick of the light, and that the real chips-and-salsa iPad 2s will indeed sport the camera along with other yet-to-be-confirmed features. Nice job, anonymous Reuters reporter. Good luck on the job market, Apple intern who was supposed to bring the gaffer's tape and cover the iPad cameras.
Dave Caolo: Another look at The Daily
Earlier today, my colleague Steve Sande published his initial impressions of The Daily, and Mel Martin added his perspective as a journalist. I also spent some time with the app this afternoon, and I have collected my initial thoughts here. UI and Navigation The Daily's designers were extremely ambitious. As a brand-spanking new technology (the device isn't even one year old), the iPad newspaper is a UI free-for-all. Check out USA TODAY, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Daily. Each accomplishes the same tasks, like opening a story or moving between stories, differently. That's a good thing, as it sparks creativity and critical thought. How would I like this to work? What's the best way for a user to find a featured editorial? What's the best way to identify a video or slideshow? It's also dangerous for the very same reason.
Mel Martin: The Daily through the eyes of one journalist
I've spent most of my life in the news business, both in reporting and management. Given that, something like The Daily is of high interest to me, both as a new media observer and as a voracious news consumer. From where I sit, The Daily looks pretty good. It's attractive, has some depth and has a varied mix of news. The creators clearly understood that providing news in the digital age isn't just about moving static content to a tablet, but using the features the tablet includes to enable video, audio, animation and graphics in a way simply not possible with something delivered on a piece of paper. I think the pricing is right. At $0.14 an issue, versus Time Magazine at $5 an issue, it seems a reasonable toll. If I were the New York Times, Washington Post or others planning expensive web editions, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp, just ruined my day. Today feels a bit like the day in the 80s when I first saw a CD-ROM filled with thousands of text files. It was something different that had the power to change the way we consume information. I'm just as excited to see how media companies will respond to The Daily. Apple is finally helping the process along by allowing subscriptions from the App Store. This way, more media companies will join the battle for subscribers. It isn't clear what kind of money Apple is extracting from publishers, and we don't know for sure Apple is giving media companies subscriber information, but I think it is likely Apple will report something -- we just don't know what. The change of terms in the iTunes Store, released today, says that Apple may ask for permission to provide some of your personal info to publishers for marketing purposes. The new terms aren't very specific as yet, but it's clearly a change from the old policies that is enabling things like The Daily to go forward.
Steve Sande: A first look at The Daily
I haven't read a newspaper since the Rocky Mountain News went belly-up a few years ago, and I'm not a fan of broadcast or cable news at all. So Rupert Murdoch (at right, during this morning's press conference) and his minions at News Corp have a long way to go to impress someone who pretty much gets all of his news from RSS feeds, occasional peeks at news websites, and Twitter. I downloaded The Daily for free a few minutes ago and will be reading it for the next two weeks courtesy of Verizon, but the big question is whether or not I'll continue to read the iPad-only newspaper after that point. At first glance, The Daily appears to be a good "national and international news source." As noted during this morning's press conference, it uses the capabilities of the iPad to the max. As the inaugural editorial mentions, "Modern technology has given us more ways to tell stories than ever before -- words, pictures, audio, video and interactive graphics. The Daily will deliver them all." Indeed, The Daily even provides such TUAW staples as app reviews, with direct links to the App Store. But before you stop reading TUAW, realize that we cover "nothin' but Apple." With The Daily, you'll get opinion pieces on Bollywood as well... The Apps & Games section of the The Daily included a video today about The Oregon Trail moving to Facebook, and you can flip to the News section with a tap or two and watch a video piece about the uprising in Egypt. There's also a daily video update that is available from the carousel page with links to the top stories. You tap on the video to go right to a featured story. Click read more (below the gallery) for the rest of my first impressions. We'll have more impressions from other TUAW writers later today. %Gallery-115577%
App Store terms and conditions updated to cover subscriptions
If you download The Daily (or any other app) from the App Store today, you'll be prompted to read and accept new terms and conditions. The update addresses subscriptions; something we and publishers have been anticipating and debating for a long time. According to the new T&C, "Purchases of subscriptions to access the Services available through the Licensed Application are controlled, handled and processed by Apple and all payment and all other matters regarding such purchases (including any information you submit or that may be collected in connection with such purchases) are subject to and governed by the applicable Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of Apple. Accordingly, we encourage that you review Apple's policies prior to making any purchase." During this morning's announcement, The Daily became the very first newspaper app in the store to offer customers a subscription option. Users can opt to pay either US$0.99 per week or $39.99 annually as a one-time payment from within the app. During the question and answer session that followed, Apple's Eddy Cue was asked if and when this model would be extended to other app store publishers. His only answer was "very soon." We can only assume that publishers' ears perked up at that comment. For example, Time, Inc. and Apple have been at odds over the very model that The Daily uses for some time. In fact, Time went so far as to say that cost-cutting and other related problems have actually hindered the development of its Sports Illustrated app. Now that the cat is out of the bag, we expect to see subscriptions roll out within the month, maybe even the fortnight. Eliminating per-issue costs should help to reduce the slide that iPad magazines are currently experiencing.
The Daily now available in the App Store
As of this writing, Rupert Murdoch and team are taking questions from the press during The Daily's launch event, and the app itself is now live in the App Store. The long-anticipated app was finally demonstrated and released earlier today. Verizon is sponsoring a free two-week trial period for all customers. After that it will cost US$0.99 per day week or 39.99 per year. We'll have more on The Daily throughout the day, so check back often.
The Daily iPad 'newspaper' launches, $.99 weekly or $39.99 per year
Rupert Murdoch's iPad-only magazine The Daily, once described as "The New York Post Goes to College," is now a go. Launched at a New York event this morning, it pledges to offer "the best of traditional journalism" with "the best of contemporary technology" like 360 degree photos and, naturally, lots of fancy multimedia content that is all pushed directly to the iPad every day. It's priced at $.99 per week or $39.99 annually and launches today, unsurprisingly with Egypt taking the "cover" image. The team behind the new-age zine showed off plenty of that technology, including a magazine-like reading interface, letting you flip through pages, and a "carousel," that gives you a higher-level view of the pages for easier browsing. The Daily also includes audio versions, with professional voiceover so you won't have to worry about GPS voice, plus video overviews of all the content if you just don't have time for reading or listening. You can share stuff you like on Twitter or Facebook and others will be able to read those stories for free via the web -- but not all the content, naturally. The site will offer app reviews and features with links right to the App Store. Sports fans get full schedules and news updates for the teams they like. Again, The Daily launches today, and we're told that the first two weeks will be courtesy of Verizon. Good on ya, VZW! Update: It's now available in the App Store.
Live from The Daily launch event, with Apple's Eddy Cue
Is the future of media an iPad-exclusive daily newspaper that's delivered automatically overnight using a new subscription service? We're here at the Guggenheim Museum in New York for the launch of News Corp's The Daily to find out -- and Apple's VP of internet services Eddy Cue is scheduled to join Rupert Murdoch on stage, so things could get interesting. Join us, won't you?
The Daily launch at 11am to stream live, News.me coming to compete
It's less than an hour until the NYC launch event for The Daily, News Corp's much-anticipated newspaper for the iPad. If you want to keep up with the event live, it appears that it will be streamed directly from thedaily.com. For those who follow such things, Poynter has sussed out the likely masthead crew for the publication's launch, and it's well stocked with print and new media veterans. Meanwhile, other publishing behemoths are not standing still while Rupert Murdoch stakes a claim on the touchable territory of daily iPad periodicals. TechCrunch reports that News.me, the New York Times' quasi-answer to The Daily, is being built by Betaworks and will be much more of a social newsreader (think Flipboard on steroids) than a traditional, original-content driven title. The app will include both licensed and free-to-read content that is curated, promoted and passively voted-up by your Twitter friends and followers. However you like your iPad news -- print-centric, or driven by the titans of broadcast and cable news, or pushed from Internet-only upstarts -- your choices are about to expand. [hat tips to Macstories & Gizmodo]
Apple and News Corp. announce February 2 event to unveil The Daily
Apple and News Corp. sent out invitations to a February 2 event to unveil The Daily. The press event will include News Corps. Chairman & CEO Rupert Murdoch and Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. The duo are expected to provide all the juicy details on the iPad-based newspaper and confirm the product's 99-cent weekly pricing. Attendees may also get a close-up look at the first application to use Apple's subscription-based pricing and new delivery mechanism, which sends content to your iOS device on a regular interval. Both of these features are expected to debut in the next version of iOS.
