More thoughts on The Daily

The Daily is another case of GREAT idea, very poor execution. Three major problems -

1) The "turn to read story" gimmick is just that - a gimmick and not useful. My iPad is not a toy, it's a full fledged working machine. I'm writing scripts and memos, checking emails, etc. Using the Apple case, it's much easier to lock in landscape mode. Having to turn that off just to read this irritates me more than a little.

2) The content - Front Page story about the shirtless congressman? Page after page about the Duke/NC game that I can see all the highlights and get better analysis on SportsCenter? No real tech coverage? Gossip as a SECTION? This seems more fitting to the British mentality than the average American iPad user, or am I just the exception? The content is what will break (or make) this, and right now for me it's really broken.

3) The app just flat doesn't work right. It has crashed every time I've tried to open it. It's always loading a new issue even when there is no new issue. Videos fire off automatically, which is my number one pet peeve. (I watched the "Rango" trailer the first day, I don't need it to fire every time it comes by, there is NOTHING NEW.) I haven't traveled anywhere yet, but my impression is on an airplane you can't access the issue you've already downloaded.

Very disappointed. Not going to pay for it.

Am confused is The Daily a Game? What is the connection with News and Game Center? Ok that is too soft a set up, but c'mon! Am no fan of Murdoch but I was way more than willing to give this a chance for the opportunity to advance the cause of what is now a fast dying newspaper industry. But the Daily's content is trivial and while some of the whiz bang graphics are good, the plodding pace of updates (daily deliveries) is just not worth the wait.

There are tech sites I visit several times per day on my iPad: Mashable, TUAW, AI. If Murdoch's staff had done the briefest marketing analysis of the lowest hanging fruit for a daily iPad delivered news app, they would not have delivered this for $30M. They were far off the mark.

The newspaper industry needs the skills of traditional news journalism, combined with the pzazz of TV news and the whizz bang immediacy rewards that comes with social media and software. I am sure Murdoch sought that skill set at the outset, but they missed the mark in every way and it will be hard to make a come back unless they act fast.

I do agree on the comments about the content. Not much there for a serious news reader. However, I don't seem to experience the slowness or crashing you report. The Daily downloads for me in less than 10 Seconds, no black screens or crashing here. I don't believe I will continue with the app in its current form though just because there are many more apps out there that deliver a better news experience.

I'd read it if it were free but, to get me to subscribe, there needs to be better content.

as far as i can tell, the current or previous issues cannot be stored, like with the ny times. therefore no internet connection, no paper--not even an old one. bummer! i think murdoch released this without having tested it himself.

I agree with all of this. : I was completely ready to plop down my money, but Flipboard is still the perfect news reading app.

It's a great idea, executed poorly.

Compare The Daily to Liberty Newspost: http://www.libertynewspost.com/ its easy to read with great content. Its a work in progress... but I think its time tested elegant formant is still the form factor that should be used for daily News. The Daily feels more like a monthly tablet magazine - its pretty to look at -when you have time. A daily newsource needs to deliver on a more basic level. Tell me whats going on - quickly - without the fluff.

~J

Yeah I agree with the article 100%. The load times are ridiculously slow. The navigation is sometimes confusing. Once I am in an article, it would be nice to have a button labeled table of contents. I know there are ways to get back, but its not very clear, and navigation in general is slow, just like the initial load time. I do like the articles and photography themselves, and its visually pleasing.

If they hope to get people to pay for it, they have to make navigation easier and much faster, as well as the content load time being faster.

I opened this app to show my wife yesterday during the Super Bowl after the ad ran. Within 15 seconds she said, "You're not selling me on this by what I've seen." My brother (an iPad owner as well) was watching and said the carousel was so laggy. Less than a minute later I knew I had lost them. Closed the app. Back to game.

The ability to block sections you don't want (which would decrease the download size of new issues) would be a plus, but the load time... crazy long. Wish it could download in the background at night somehow.

I've never been a newspaper reader, but I thought I might be more inclined to read in the iPad format. Like everyone says, it's pretty, if a little slow, but there's little or nothing compelling to read. I know there's news worth reading because it shows up in my RSS feeds on on my podcasts, but The Daily isn't covering it.