News Corp.‘s iPad publication, The Daily, now available

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Internet, Software, Videos

News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch unveiled his iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, today at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

"In the tablet era, there's room for a fresh and new voice," Murdoch said.

The Daily will feature nearly 100 pages of original content produced each day. Among the bells and whistles included are HD video and 360 degree photos. Readers can subscribe to the publication which will be delivered to the iPad automatically each morning and can opt to be billed each week for $0.99 or each year for $39.99. Murdoch said that comes down to $0.14 a day.

On hand were Apple's head of Internet Services, Eddie Cue; The Daily Editor Jesse Angelo; and News Corp.'s head of digital Jon Miller.

"It's the first national daily news publication built from the ground up for the iPad," Cue said.

With content spanning many different subjects, Miller said that The Daily is an important tool to tell stories.

The arrival of The Daily has been anticipated for some time. Before Apple CEO Steve Jobs went on medical leave, he was slated to appear on stage with Murdoch to reveal The Daily Jan. 19 at an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Today's launch was confirmed last Thursday when invitations were sent to journalists.

Despite Jobs' absence from the event, Murdoch said the Apple CEO "has been a champion behind The Daily since day one."

However, it was delayed so that Apple and News Corp. reportedly could iron out some kinks with the subscription platform. News Corp. confirmed the delay, but would not disclose further details as to the reason.

But The Daily's staff of 100 respected journalists that Murdoch nabbed from such publications as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Forbes weren't sitting idly by in the lead-up to the launch. They had been working to churn out dummy issues to an exclusive email list of 1,000 readers.

The Daily has achieved something new on the iPad frontier with its subscription model. In fact, it's one of the few apps that actually has a model. One of the reason a lot of consumer magazines haven't taken off on the iPad is because subscriptions aren't available. People are obviously less inclined to read a magazine on the device if they have to cough up $5 every time they want to peruse their favorite glossy. However, Cue said that Apple will make an announcement about subscriptions for other publications "soon."

The Daily is available now.

This article, written by Leslie Horn, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc..