The Daily may be the final nail in the newspapers coffin but its not, as is, the publication of the future.
It may be successful, at least initially, due to the enormous hype surrounding it and the sheer brand and promotional effort, but I don’t believe it to be an example to follow, at least from the editorial model perspective.
I like the platform (assuming bugs are squashed soon) and hope to see other publishers adopting or copying it. Kudos for the effort.
However, being iPad only is a big down side. This means I can’t continue reading articles on my iPhone when on the go. The future of publishing should be on multiple platforms. This is just replacing the print edition with a single digital edition. It makes sense that the highly graphical pages are not available elsewhere but the long texts, and they are long, can’t even be sent to services such as Instapaper (although you can achieve this by emailing the link).
The pricing is right, assuming the content is compelling and exclusive.
What I find unfortunate is the use of the same old-school “newspaper” paradigm and content style.
Why insist on creating a “variety” publication when it’s so hard to compete with verticals?
Why insist on boring, long-form analysis coupled with light celebrity stories?
The bells & whistles are cool but don’t really make the overall publication more interesting than a typical print newspaper. Unless you grew up reading them.
The first editions doesn’t provide much that I’d be willing to pay for. The only “exclusive” may be the analysis on Egypt but even then it isn’t hard to find pieces that give me more, for free.
App reviews? Please, there are hundreds of better sources!
Fashion? Celebrity coverage? Come one! Even People’s digital edition of their magazine provides better images and content.
Sports? I don’t care much about the sports being covered. Why can’t I skip those sections? Even if I cared, I’m sure there are also better sources.
It’s a good effort but editorial innovation is nowhere to be found (I’ve seen print newspapers with more innovative content). Oh, that’s right, this comes from Murdoch. It’s too much to ask.
Even the platform is not so unique. Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Wired and other magazines are not so different.
I’m looking forward to the next generation publishers using a platform such as this one.
I’m looking forward to niche publications using this platform. That will certainly be the next generation of publishing.
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