Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch create digital newspaper

22 Nov 2010

Apple’s Steve Jobs and media mogul Rupert Murdoch have been collaborating on a new digital newspaper they have named The Daily which will be unveiled in the coming days.

The newspaper – which according to reports combines “tabloid sensibility with broadsheet intelligence” – will become available as an iPad app.

There will be no print or web edition of the newspaper.

Apple engineers are working with Murdoch’s editorial people to assemble the tablet-only newspaper.

Murdoch has already assembled an editorial staff of 100 who will work on the 26th floor of the News Corp offices in New York.

The newspaper app will be distributed for 99 cents a week and among the journalists who have been hired is The Sun’s online editor Pete Picton.

The Daily will be initially available on the iPad but will be made available on other tablet devices pretty rapidly.

The iPad is a game changer?

Murdoch believes the iPad could be a game changer for the media business and according to The Guardian, he was moved by research that suggested people who own the devices spend more time immersed in their iPads than surfing the web.

In recent months, Murdoch put up a paywall in front of The Times newspaper and has attracted 100,000 subscribers while The Wall Street Journal has 2 million paying subscribers.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com