News Corp. to kill iPad news app The Daily on Dec. 15
The sun sets this month on Rupert Murdoch's ambitious publication, though News Corp. says the brand itself will "live on in other channels."
The Daily, News Corp.'s embattled iPad news app, will officially be closing its doors on December 15.
The publishing house revealed the app's demise in a broad announcement today covering a wide range of changes at the company. The Daily as a standalone publication will be shuttered, but News Corp. said that its "brand will live on in other channels." Some staff, for example, will be sent to The New York Post.
"From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation," News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said today in a statement. "Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties.
"I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily," Murdoch continued.
The Daily launched in February 2011 to much fanfare. The publication lived only on the iPad and came with a daily rate of 99 cents or an annual fee of $39.99. Rather than focus on a single news topic, The Daily tackled a host of areas, including technology, general news, and sports.
Earlier this year, The Daily was placed on probation, as News Corp. tried to determine whether the digital newspaper was worth keeping. Just a couple of weeks later, News Corp. announced that it would lay off 50 employees at The Daily, amounting to nearly one-third of the publication's workforce. The app also lost sports coverage and much of its opinion content.
The Daily's closure underscores the difficulties related to launching a fully realized news alternative to major, traditional publishers, even with the backing of a company like News Corp. and its CEO, Rupert Murdoch.
At the February 2011 unveiling, Murdoch said that $30 million had gone into development of The Daily and that the publication would cost less than $2 million per month to produce.
Although The Daily will be gone, the publication's founding editor in chief, Jesse Angelo, will assume the role of Publisher of The New York Post, effective immediately. Angelo previously served as the Post's executive editor.
Greg Clayman, The Daily's publisher, will oversee News Corp.'s global digital strategy.
This story has been updated throughout the morning.