NewsCorp, Apple Look at January 2011 Release of 'The Daily'

It’s almost from the horse’s mouth: AllThingsD, the news site owned by NewsCorp, says the Apple-NewsCorp super-secret launch of the “game-changing” iPad publication The Daily is slated to be unveiled in January. We first disclosed the deets about Apple’s plan in November 2010, but a few things have changed since then. Read on for the details…

“Multiple sources” tell AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka that Jan. 17, 2011, is the new launch date for The Daily. I’d like to believe there’s solid ground for this rumor, considering that AllThingsD is part of The Wall Street Journal‘s online news network, and as such, is owned by NewsCorp, which in turn, is owned and run by Rupert Murdoch.

The delay apparently is due to a new not-quite-finished “push” subscription feature. It’s alleged to be linked into iTunes for recurring billing , and in this case, will sell The Daily to users for a buck a week. Then, like with the Kindle, you’ll wake up with a fresh paper to read on your iPad. Flashy 3D effects are also rumored to be a part of the package.

Kafka detailed that this launch won’t change the game with “conventional publishers” that want to control in-app subscriptions or bill users via iTunes, but Kafka said he believes the special push feature will debut on other iPad apps after The Daily makes the scene.

I’m a bit more optimistic. If Apple unveils some special push feature linked to iTunes subscriptions, I think Apple will open that up to “conventional publishers” when the time is right. The biggest fight is likely that Apple will want a slice of the pie if publishers go through iTunes. Will it be as deep as the 30 percent cut right now or will Apple back off some? No one knows.

Publishing Future

Still, I don’t see what the big deal is. I understand that publishers want to reach users via the iPad or the iPhone, but they should take a cue from The Economist, which is available for download in its entirety to current subscribers. Readers just log in with their credentials in-app and they’re off to the races. Magazines could easily offer a subscription model that works for their website and carries over to the device the app is running on once the app is downloaded. (Think of it as Netflix for news.)

Apple’s restrictions on in-app purchases are then circumvented in an easy (and app-approved) way. The only potential conflict would be the price users pay for their digital subscriptions.

I realize this defeats the easy one-tap way of buying a magazine on the iPad, and I know this is what tech-savvy users and developers are already doing (e.g., PDF subscriptions, etc.). But, if Apple can convince publishes to begrudgingly agree to give Apple a percentage of their subscription revenues, my original thesis remains true: This could change news the way Apple changed music.

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