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]
Share
Categories
The Nieman Journalism Lab reports that social sharing from iPad news app The Daily is falling precipitously, according to data from a...
Add a Comment
They lost me when they dedicated 5+ pages to "The Richest Dog in North Dakota". I enjoyed it for the first 2 weeks of the free demo, but it got exponentially worse after that.
April 07 2011 at 8:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI think The Daily is great. I hope it doesn't fold up. 50 tweets a day is not good.
April 07 2011 at 8:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI actually liked the Daily. The main reason I cancelled it was the constant crashing.
I was willing to put up with the long download times if it meant being able to access it later when I had no wifi signal. That was a big selling point for me. I need a news app that I can download EVERYTHING and than not need a signal later when sitting on an airplane.
I subscribe to about a dozen magazines on my iPad..mostly through Zino, although Time, Newsweek, and a couple of others with standalone apps work. The Daily seemed contrived, not really full of "news" and kind of gimmicky. I'm a big advocate of magazines delivered electronically, and would love to be able to stop killing trees for magazines. I still get another two dozen magazines in print, because there are no alternatives. I wanted to like the Daily, but it's overwrought at every level, and underwhelming at delivering news. I deleted the app, and haven't missed it for a minute.
April 07 2011 at 12:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt was free for 4 weeks so it may explain why readership dropped
April 06 2011 at 11:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI deleted The Daily in less than the original two-week trial period mainly because it did not contain enough real news content. If a product is going to call itself a daily newspaper it needs to have a significant amount of hard news. I was also bothered by slow downloading and crashes, but the lack of good content is the main problem.
April 06 2011 at 11:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI agree wih you there, I also think, why tweet about paid content, the link wont really get my cheap friends anywhere. Like tweeting the economist, it doesn't help a lot of people I know since they can't log on.
April 07 2011 at 1:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe stats mean nothing unless you compare to a similar app.
How many tweets are generated by the NYTimes app?
I'm from Australia, of course, so The Daily does poorly here, 100% US content and pretty lame content at that.
they do mean a lot as they are compared to their own performance since it was launched. This is an apples vs apples comparison and it does show a decline in use of the app. And this decline being up to 3/4ths of original stats it can't be blamed on statistical error or even an incidental 3/4ths of subscribers selling their iPad 1s and waiting for an upgrade to iPad 2s...
April 07 2011 at 9:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySure, but what if it's still six times as many tweets as the NYTimes app?
I don't think anyone would expect the number of tweets to remain at the high of the hyped introduction, especially as when the app was free.
I subscribed to the Daily for about 2 weeks. I can get politically-slanted news and gossip on the web for free. This application did NOTHING to set itself apart from all the other stuff.
April 06 2011 at 11:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the content is useless, and "dumbed" down to the lowest level of comprehension? Its a bad first attempt "virtual" publication IMO- slow, and clumsy navigation, and a bad repackaging of news packages from other (better) sources- It felt like USA Today on the iPad...
The bigger problem at play for The Daily is that its pretty easy to find news stories of interest on your own, which are written by experts. They shouldn't try to mimic bad (old and stoic) print and television media- they should try to really invent something new.
Since I have a wifi-only iPad, tweeting articles isn't an option for me since I tend to read it in places where I don't have wireless coverage.
April 06 2011 at 11:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyDeals of the Day
more deals- 9-Piece iPhone Bundle, includes 1,900mAh battery for $8 + free shipping
- Skullcandy Riot Earbud Headphones for $10 + free shipping
- Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard for $40 + $8 s&h
- Refurb Mac Pro Xeon Quad-Core 2.8GHz Workstation for $1,150 + $38 s&h, more
- Used Apple iPad 32GB Wi-Fi Tablet for $200 + free shipping
- Apple iPod nano Multi-Touch 8GB MP3 Player for $100 + $8 s&h
Software Updates
more updatesFeatured Stories
more stories
Popular Stories
TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
13 Comments