Is this the future?
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and a gaggle of tech and media chroniclers gathered Wednesday at the Guggenheim Museum in New York for a first look at the debut edition of The Daily, News Corp.'s experimental iPad "newspaper."
Joined by Apple executive Eddy Cue, the company's Internet division chief, Murdoch unveiled the publication to which his company has committed around 100 staffers and an investment rumored to be around $30 million. (For up-to-the-second coverage, follow along on Fortune.com's live blog.)
"The iPad demands that we completely re-imagine our craft," Murdoch said. "I'm convinced that in the tablet era there's room for a fresh and robust new voice."
Apple has sold 14.8 million iPads since its tablet hit the market in April. Murdoch said he expects the tablet audience to grow to more than 50 million within the next year. It represents an opportunity to "make the business of editing and news gathering viable again," he said.
"No paper. No multi-million dollar presses. No trucks," Murdoch said. "We're passing on these savings to the reader, which is why we can offer The Daily for just 14 cents a day."
A lot of people are excited about the potential of "community journliasm" and the empowering of individual voices inherent in the new media. But old dynamics still matter. Whatever the format, there's going to be somebody who thinks he can make money from it and has the investment capability and guts to try it.
The Daily? That's the best name they could come up with?
