Slow Start for Murdoch’s “The Daily” iPad Newspaper

Wednesday, 02 February 2011 | by Pat's Picks

UPDATE: Since we wrote this post a countdown clock and some additional information has appeared on The Daily’s website.
UPDATE 2: Scroll down for the Daily’s demonstration video, which was released online late this morning.

This is the much-heralded launch day for News Corp’s iPad publication known as “The Daily.” But by the looks of things, they’re off to a slow start. I realize it’s a newspaper meant exclusively for consumption on the iPad. I figured there would at least be a website to let me know what I’m missing by not having an iPad and the 99-cent weekly subscription. But as of 8:00 am today there was still nothing more than a “Coming Soon” page at thedaily.com.

(On Twitter this morning, @romenesko advises that The Daily isn’t expected to come to life until 11 am.)

David Carr had all the details about Rupert Murdoch’s ambitious iPad-only newspaper project in the New York Times a few months back. Carr said he’s intrigued that so many big names have signed on—that’s where Page Six editor Richard Johnson went, as well as New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones. Carr also says it might be a smart bet, that selling the news in a commercial environment a la the iTunes model could help consumers get over their hesitation to pay. But he questions how Murdoch plans to publish a national newspaper everyday with a staff of only 100. He also wonders how the tablet-only paper, which is expected to prohibit outbound links, will fare in an “ecosystem of news [that] is driven by links.”