the daily
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
The Daily was News Corp's iPad-only newspaper, launched in February 2011 at an event hosted by Rupert Murdoch and Apple's Eddy Cue — the world's first tablet-native daily paper, refreshed every morning. It cost $0.99 a week or $40 a year, later adding support for Galaxy Tab and Facebook. Conceived as a bold experiment in digital publishing, it aimed to prove tablets could save the newspaper business.
02 / the daily FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
The Daily never found a large enough audience fast enough to convince Murdoch the business model was sustainable. It peaked at just over 100,000 paying subscribers — far below the roughly 715,000 needed to break even on a $500,000-a-week budget — while costing News Corp about $30 million a year. A 30% staff cut in July 2012 could not save it.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launch
News Corp launches The Daily in February 2011 with Apple; it draws more than 100,000 paying subscribers in its first year.
- Shutdown
After cutting 30% of staff in July, News Corp announces on December 3 that The Daily will cease standalone publication on December 15; its technology, assets and some staff are folded into the New York Post.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
News Corp announced on December 3, 2012 that The Daily would cease standalone publication on December 15.
- 02
The brand's technology and assets, plus some of its roughly 120 staff, were folded into the New York Post.
- 03
Editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo became publisher of the New York Post.