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Innovative iPad newspaper app The Daily will be crossing the Atlantic soon, making its UK debut in the first half of this year. Jon Miller, the digital boss at its publisher News Corporation, revealed the news at a media conference, just as the company prepares to start charging for the app in the US.
Miller said The Daily will come to western Europe “not too long from now”, and when pressed said that this meant in the first half of 2011, MediaGuardian reports. It’s seemingly the US version of the news app we’ll be getting, though, rather than an edition localised for Blighty.
That could restrict its popularity on this side of the pond to expat Americans and curious news junkies, but if the app proves popular, a proper UK edition will hopefully follow.
The Daily went live in the US App Store in early February, blending standard newspaper articles with videos, 360-degree photographs and interactive graphics. Readers could also customise its sports section to read about their favourite teams — no news on whether this will be tweaked for the UK to place more of an emphasis on soccerball.
The Daily has been free in the US while people get used to it, but News Corp is about to start charging $0.99 a week, which would translate to 59p here in the UK. Miller admitted this week that the introduction of fees will be a “moment of truth” for the news app, which cost News Corp $30m to set up, and $500,000 a week to run.
That means the app needs more than 720,000 subscribers to break even. So far, it’s signed up 5,000, although those are people voluntarily subscribing before it becomes a requirement next week, so it’s not a sign of The Daily being a flop. Not yet, anyway.
Will you be interested in buying the US edition of The Daily when it goes on sale here in the UK? Is News Corp on to a winner with an iPad-only subscription news app? Let us know your thoughts with a comment.
