The Daily Launches

It seems like everyone I talk to about this, most haven't even seen the app mind you, groan right off the bat, "Ughhh it's Murdoch... ". For a moment suspend these feelings, if you have them please and lets talk about what has and has not been accomplished from the perspective of advancing digital publishing shall we?

There are things happening here that I think are remarkable.

Things I like include the obviously apple inspired large carousel browsing feature, I have to say it's far more fun to flip though the pages in this manner than to use what most (all so far?) iPad magazines use which is a small icon of a page thumbnail anchored in a single spot that is only revealed by dragging your finger across a fussy little timeline, this action is not visceral, it's not satisfying. It's awkward... The Deal wins this round. Sure, I have heard folks complain that the large thumbnail images are pixelated and I agree, but keep in mind, higher resolution will only slow down your experience and the lord knows this app cannot afford a slower update time, it's S-L-O-W. This pixelation in my mind is a tolerable trade off for speed at this point in the game.

Some other wins are live daily pushes of content and finally establishing a subscription model that is actually quite attractive in price. Oh and once I download no more trips to the apple store to get the new issue, not even the user experience of going back to my "shell" for the brand I am reading and uploading in some proprietary process that feels awkward. All I do is open the application and I get a message that my new issue is downloading! This my friends is progress, Just speed it up soon please!

It's interesting to note that headline writing in an APP only experience can once again be sensational because they do not need to write headlines that can be indexed by Google and ranked by robots, this is a HUGE win for anyone who loves powerful clever text combined with rich evocative imagery, what a great magazine should be.

The audio comments are novel and interesting, Not sure if I liked them or found them useful past simply hearing different voices adding a better understanding of anothers POV. You have to wonder how they will police them though. I found it funny on the first day I saw four audio comments on a story. As I played them I realized they all said the exact same phrase in english with different accents from around the world as if everyone had the same revelation, "That photograph is impressive". It was kind of creepy at first in an M Night Shyamalan kind of way. I also realized that the same phrase was written twice in the comments river by yet two different users, Ok I get it, The photograph is impressive! All kidding aside, I did find it insightful that they stuffed the comments to teach people how to use them... an interesting tactic I have not noticed in practice on that scale before.

For a daily of any medium the photographs are pretty darn good, the visuals overall are fun and upbeat, the crossword puzzles are fun, the horoscopes are again... fun, oh and the news is presented in a simple short accessible style... NewsCorp is very smart to go after this common man low hanging fruit style of wrapping up the days events. I think this model and product has a chance to capture a decent amount of share. Time alone will tell if the world is ready for a daily electronic paid newspaper service but I appreciate the big guns like Murdoch taking one in the pocketbook and experimenting, these guys have to lead before the little guys can play ball. Once the business model is settled upon and the general interest this type of release creates permeates the crowd it can begin to raise the tide for all our boats.

Honestly, I'm having fun playing with this app, I really kinda like it. Now here is why I won't subscribe to it and I'd probably infrequently check the APP at best even if it was free (unless lets say, I was a daily train commuter).

NewsCorp is gambling against a future that those of us working online can see coming clear as day. A future where people en mass are not going to visit your website daily anymore, people are not going to wait around to download your preciously put together APP. They are going to read the news that comes to them in bits and pieces though elaborate yet simple (in feeling) readers like Flipboard, Pulse and Tweetmag that have either been vetted by themselves as a trusted source or recommended by friends and peers. The second coming of RSS if you will, (with a lot of social recommendation thrown in the mix). The end user is quickly becoming empowered to act as the editor, a scary proposition for those of us in the business. A powerful proposition for consumers.

Keep in mind The Daily has another feature going for it, a good simple set of share tools that will enable it's content to be nimble and shareable across the internet. They will need to work this feature aggressively in order to hook enough viewers back to their APP. And then what happens, people have to pay per issue to read the story? That's going to be a tough sell.

An especially tough sell when people like myself will be reading clips of The Daily off our Flipboards and catching the coolest highlights in our Facebook and Twitter rivers, maybe if they tease us well enough we will go through the extra effort to check out the full story with full size art on Tumblr since it's archived their in real time for free.

http://thedailyindexed.tumblr.com/

Wow... did anyone notice The Daily super bowl ad? Mr.Murdoch is sparing no expense.

Quite an undertaking, I heard that army works loooong hours, at approx. 7 days a week? ;)