Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s iPad currently has over 275,000 apps available in its App Store, ranging from business news to video games, but one of the most innovative was a publication introduced by News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) in early 2011. Called “The Daily,” News Corp’s tablet-only digital newspaper was centered on the idea that readers would be offered far lower prices than traditional publications charged due to the lack of print infrastructure, while enjoying a streamlined interface designed for touch-screen technology.
In a press release on its official website today, though, News Corp is announcing that it “will cease standalone publication of The Daily iPad app on December 15, 2012,” and that some pieces of its structure “will be folded into The [New York] Post.” On the decision, CEO Rupert Murdoch had this to say:
“From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. 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 know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself.”
While the publication was originally launched as a standalone app for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad, versions for the iPhone, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android tablets, and the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire had been added more recently, along with a pricing structure that was available on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. Regarding Apple’s iPad, readers could subscribe for 99 cents a week or $39.99 a year, while iPhone and Kindle versions were offered at close to half this price.
While we don’t have specific up-to-date user statistics from News Corp, a letter from the Editor in July disclosed that The Daily had “100,000 paying subs who are renewing their subscriptions at a 98% rate,” which still implies that at a yearly operating cost of approximately $26 million, the publication was operating at a loss, no matter how innovative an experience it was on devices like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPad. Using an average user rate of $39.99 a year, we can estimate that The Daily needed roughly 650,000 subscribers to break even.
Though it’s certainly sad to see a publication close its doors — especially with the quality that The Daily maintained — it makes sense from a profitability standpoint to fold its best aspects into The New York Post, which has traditionally had a much larger readership. Here’s an introductory video of the now defunct publication in case you’re interested:
