The Daily gets 800K downloads but loses $10 million this quarter
The latest quarterly results from News Corporation say The Daily, the much-publicized iPad newspaper, has lost US$10 million. Much of the loss is associated start-up costs. News Corp. reports The Daily costs about $500,000 a week to produce, and revenues depend on advertising and subscriptions. The company has not revealed how many of the people who downloaded the free introductory subscriptions have converted to the pay model.
When The Daily came out, I thought the $39.99 annual subscription cost was reasonable, but the content mix turned me off. I'm not sure if the magazine has the proper flavor of news that would appeal to iPad owners. The Daily looks great and works very well on the iPad, but without compelling content, I'll never be a customer.
Several other magazines have experimented with the iPad, often focusing on cost. Most recently, Time Magazine has offered free iPad issues to customers with paid subscriptions. Many publications are too expensive on the iPad, and cost more than the paper equivalents. Other solutions, like Zinio Newsstand, have a nice mix of magazines at reasonable prices, but basically you get a PDF of the magazine, which is a pain to read because you are constantly re-orienting the page to get the best fit. The Zinio app also offers a text mode, but then the layout and illustrations vanish.
What are your thoughts? Have you been willing to pay for magazines on the iPad? If not, what would it take to get you to open your wallet?
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The latest quarterly results from News Corporation say The Daily, the much-publicized iPad newspaper, has lost US$10 million. Much of...
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The Daily is fantastic and when I see people say "hmmm...$39 for year...I don't know..." I am thinking..really? This is a daily, interactive, text, video, multimedia experience with top notch journalism and reporting..I just see it as a real bargain. It is NOT for everyone. If you are a geek mainly are looking for tech news, then the appeal will be minimal, but if you want to learn more about the world and get a real exploration of current news and issues, it's very educational and entertaining. It has been especially great lately..it is really hitting it's stride with features and reporting. Plus it's good to support this kind of publication, would like to see more. Where else can you get a packed DAILY media experience that costs half a million dollars to produce weekly, for like 75 cents a week?
Popular Science is a great iPad magazine, I took the annual subscription. Just finished reading the Free Wired but it was disappointing, also The Project is disappointing but no way near The Daily, I found it cumbersome and content poor.
May 06 2011 at 5:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBottom line - price is right for the category. Content is wrong. Crap content.
May 05 2011 at 9:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI feel the same about The Daily. I enjoy news of any relevance from various sources, whether it be from news outlets, magazines, web blogs, etc. I have been spoiled by "Zite". This app allows to chose how I want sections of topics to be formed. The "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" icon let's the user, in effect, personalize the topic sections by taking your choice of the thumb options and evolving the page into articles you enjoy.
The "Zite" app is free
the best ipad deals via zinio are Spin ($7.99 for 10 issues) and Rolling Stone magazine. I want to buy wired but way too expensive also FAST COMPANY but not available.
May 05 2011 at 5:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI like news without slants or opinions - unless it's an Op-Ed. I can develop my own opinions. That's why I dumped the Daily. But it sure looked beautiful with nice video content.
May 05 2011 at 5:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt's from the makers of Fox News. No thank you!
The Daily = Fox News = Faux News
Or rather how Zinio is doing because of the iPad. Not sure if Zinio subscribes to the iPad subscription model ;).
May 05 2011 at 4:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI love The Daily -- keeps me current quickly.
May 05 2011 at 4:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI think Zinio has a good thing going. It provides a single interface for all my subscribed magazines, magazines look and work similar to print magazines with some interactive content (I dont think that ipad magazines which have print counterparts benefit from new navigation approaches. It makes things all the more confusing.), and it has good price points for its magazines.
I wonder how zinio is doing from iPad subscriptions.
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