Sun sets on The Daily

December 3, 2012 5:55 AM

The Daily, much-lauded iPad-only news operation is "ceasing standalone publication" on December 15. The News Corp publication launched Feb. 2, 2011 with cooperation from Apple and its nascent Newsstand app. Previously.
posted by brentajones (24 comments total)

I remember reading about this "paper" when it launched and then just now and nothing in between. It didn't really make much of a dent in the world of media, did it?
posted by octothorpe at 6:02 AM on December 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

As a general fan of Apple products who thinks that occasionally the company unveils some really cool breakthrough technology, the company's endorsement of The Daily bothered me right from the start. Whereas on the education front Apple promotes how the iPad can make fields of education simultaneously more immersive and more detailed – look at how much more we can fit onto a digital device! – The Daily was a shit entertainment rag from the start. The selling pitch was, "We deliver shorter and more digestible blurbs, now with video coverage to take up even more of your day!"

Just last week I was curious whether or not The Daily would be considered an important enough editorial paper to offer a presidential endorsement. Sure enough, it offered one, and just as surely, it was for Mitt Romney.

Romney has shown that as a Republican governor of a Democratic state, he worked across party lines to get things done. This is an indispensable skill, and one that Obama simply doesn’t have.

In the end, however, it comes down to the economy. Obama has proven himself incapable of getting Americans back to work and getting our economy back on track. Romney will succeed where the president has so obviously failed.

All in all, just another bland Murdoch presentation, heavy on the "sensation" and light on anything of any value whatsoever.

For me, the most interesting news-for-iPad design has been The Guardian's, because of how thoroughly they embraced the notion that this was a digital publication, so it should look and act like a beautiful application, not a pseudo-newspaper. Meanwhile, The Magazine is a fairly nerd-and-tech-centric publication, but it's the first one launched by a veteran iPad developer and it's had pretty good content so far.
posted by Rory Marinich at 6:07 AM on December 3, 2012 [9 favorites]

This is sort of tangential, but it's a great discussion of "The Magazine" and how it fits into a larger theme of publishing industry disruption.

"The Daily" was a terrible app to use, the content wasn't all that good, and it was $40 a year. I'm not surprised that they aren't dealing well.
posted by device55 at 6:21 AM on December 3, 2012 [4 favorites]

I love the internet, but surely one of its best features is its ability to frustrate Rupert Murdoch
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:33 AM on December 3, 2012 [47 favorites]

Here's is [sic] a taste of what you'll get with The Daily:

- News: 'Gangnam Style'

Sort of says it all.
posted by Egg Shen at 6:39 AM on December 3, 2012 [5 favorites]

That CraigMod article that device55 linked to is a really great piece. And gives me hope. However, I'm not sure how many $2/month subscriptions I'll be able to manage before I feel guilty.

I will miss aggregators that include things I don't care about, and the eventual serendipitous discovery of something I truly love.
posted by DigDoug at 6:46 AM on December 3, 2012 [3 favorites]

"Find me the oldest dog in America, or the richest man in South Dakota," [Daily editor-in-chief Jesse] Angelo wrote in a much-mocked memo to reporters. ...

Angelo fought back against "the latest misinformed, untrue rumors of our imminent demise" and urged staffers to ignore "the haters." Then 50 of its 170 full-time employees were laid off.

posted by Egg Shen at 6:50 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that a multinational megacorporation would tout the educational benefits of their consumer electronics device and then use it to maximize their monetary gain.
posted by DU at 6:51 AM on December 3, 2012

Meh, gone the way of the Ongo -- I have no problem with paywalls, but IMO they should be in front of richer content, not blurbs. I get my blurbs for free without your fancy app. WSJ on the other hand is a good example of a paywall I don't mind paying to get through. Regardless of what you think of the content, it's rich and proprietary.
posted by analogue at 6:51 AM on December 3, 2012

Perhaps we have a different definition of "much-lauded". Overhyped, sure. Lauded? Not sure about that.
posted by inturnaround at 6:57 AM on December 3, 2012

WSJ on the other hand is a good example of a paywall I don't mind paying to get through.

I feel the same way about The Economist. Which is the only thing I use Newstand for, because they've done away with their standalone app for iOS, a decision I still don't understand. Is there anything actually attractive to publishers in using Newstand? It certainly hasn't served any function for me as an end user.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:01 AM on December 3, 2012

What are you guys talking about? I'm still waiting for my next issue of HP Pivot for WebOS.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:06 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you stick your app in Newsstand, you get access to APIs that you wouldn't otherwise, such as getting new issues pushed to users.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:16 AM on December 3, 2012 [4 favorites]

So I pay $40 a year, I read something cool on The Daily, I want to tell a friend about it...

...then what? Do they have to also be paying $40 a year and also own an iPad to read it? Wouldn't I just go find a similar blurb somewhere else, and send that to my friend? Wouldn't I then ask myself why I'm paying $40 a year for content that's free elsewhere, and not locked up?
posted by almostmanda at 7:17 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's crazy how the tablet form factor + the artificial walled garden of the app store have hypnotized old media types. It's just a laptop without a keyboard, we'll still get our news from the web, thanks.
posted by Tom-B at 7:18 AM on December 3, 2012 [8 favorites]

If you stick your app in Newsstand, you get access to APIs that you wouldn't otherwise, such as getting new issues pushed to users.

Reason #4 why I avoid apps that duplicate web content.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:21 AM on December 3, 2012

Damn, brentajones, kudos on finding the buried lede in that spectacularly boring, droning press release. I couldn't begin to wade through that thing and would never have seen that. Thanks.
posted by jscott at 8:03 AM on December 3, 2012

My surprise is limited only to that The Daily was even still around.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:02 AM on December 3, 2012

Here's is [sic] a taste of what you'll get with The Daily:

- News: 'Gangnam Style'



Minus the overwhelming popularity and gazillions of pageviews, natch.
posted by chavenet at 9:18 AM on December 3, 2012

If you stick your app in Newsstand,

In my experience, an app in Newsstand means I'll never look at it again.
posted by chavenet at 9:19 AM on December 3, 2012

I subscribed for a few months after I got my iPad last November. I'll admit, I was impressed by how the layout of the pages changed depending if you read in landscape or portrait mode. And I enjoyed the daily crossword puzzle.

Then the shine wore off and I was irritated by how buggy it was. And I was still reading yesterday's news, which I didn't mind if the stories were more in-depth, but they weren't.

.
posted by kimberussell at 9:19 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

lauded

I don't think that word means what you think it means.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:24 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

What It Was Like Launching the Doomed iPad Magazine The Daily
posted by Egg Shen at 11:19 AM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't really care about stuff looking that nice. I think a lot of people feel the same way, after all most web sites are barely readable. Sometimes people complain but nobody is going back to reading print because they hate web fonts oh so much.

Best case scenario you make your iPad version as nice as the best looking print magazine. Who cares. Magazines already look that good and people don't buy them.

There needs to be a value added. Something that cannot be done with print. A couple videos is not it, I can just look on youtube. What they should offer is access to the archives and vast institutional knowlege. Click on a noun and get all the articles News Corp owns from the beginning of time. Everything from the archives. I might pay $40 a year for that.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:40 AM on December 3, 2012 [2 favorites]