After less than two years of operation, The Daily, the world's first newspaper designed from the ground up exclusively for the iPad, will close its digital doors on Dec. 13. News Corp has announced plans to shut down the imprint citing anemic readership numbers. Some of The Daily's 120 staff members, as well as technology, will be folded into one of News Corp's other daily newspapers The New York Post.
“From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation," News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said in a statement. "Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties."
The Daily sought to herald a new era of digital publishing with splashy photos, videos and touch-friendly interactive graphics weaved liberally around traditionally reported news. But after a much-hyped launch in February of 2011, the downloadable app never quite took off with readers. Over the summer, The Daily laid off a third of its staff.
As part of a larger restructuring, all of News Corp's print properties, including the Post and the Wall Street Journal, will be split from the TV properties, which will now go under the umbrella of Fox Group.
