It’s already one of the worst-kept secrets in tech -- News Corp. titan Rupert Murdoch has an iPad-only newspaper coming called The Daily. A January 19 date had been set to launch the new offering, but it now appears that will be delayed a bit.
All Things Digital’s MediaMemo blog is reporting that the wait continues for the as-yet unannounced iPad newspaper, The Daily. A pet project for News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch, the iPad-only news service was expected to launch next week but now appears to be delayed “for weeks, not months” according to one source.
“Apple and News Corp. have made a joint decision to push back next week’s planned launch, according to sources familiar with the companies’ plans,” Peter Kafka reports in his MediaMemo blog. “The delay is supposed to give Apple time to tweak its new subscription service for publications sold through its iTunes platform.”
Word on the street was that The Daily would launch on January 19 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but now those plans appear to be delayed just a bit, perhaps to coincide with an upcoming iOS update (iOS 4.3 maybe?) that would enable subscription billing via iTunes.
“The issue isn’t with the app itself, which News Corp. executives and their proxies have been showing off over the last few weeks, but a new subscription feature that Apple is building into iTunes,” Kafka writes.
“As I noted last month, The Daily was supposed to use a new ‘push’ subscription feature from Apple, where iTunes automatically bills customers on a weekly or monthly basis, and a new edition shows up on customers’ iPads every morning,” Kafka explains.
The delay was confirmed by a PR rep from News Corp, but neither they nor Apple had any further comment on the companies’ plans.
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