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Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Daily coming to Android tablets this spring?
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Daily Show And Colbert Report Return To Hulu Via New Viacom Content Partnership
Hulu has just struck a content partnership with Viacom to return “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” to the content platform.
The deal also includes other TV Shows from Viacom’s media networks, including Comedy Central, MTV, BET, VH1, Spike TV, and TV Land to the Hulu Plus subscription service. Viacom had previously pulled the two Comedy Central shows from Hulu last March. Financial terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.
From the release: Under the agreement, current full episodes and clips of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” will be available on the free ad-supported Hulu.com service and through the Hulu Plus subscription service beginning February 2, 2011. In addition, Viacom will make available to Hulu Plus subscribers a selection of current programs, like Jersey Shore, Tosh.0, Teen Mom 2, Manswers, Let’s Stay Together, and Hot in Cleveland 21 days after they air. Viacom content availability on Hulu Plus will vary on a show-by-show basis.
This is a big deal for Hulu. Even when Hulu first convinced Viacom to distribute Colbert and The Daily Show back in June 2008, it was a major milestone for the then young video service. Viacom subsequently pulled the content, deciding that they needed Colbert and Jon Stewart more than they needed Hulu, especially since Vicacom wasn’t really monetizing the content on Hulu.
But with Hulu’s subscription plans and massive advertising, Viacom sees the potential for pulling in revenue now that Hulu is pulling in hundreds of millions in revenue. Hulu’s subscriber count is expected to pass 1 million this year and Hulu Plus as a business will have a revenue run rate north of $200 million this year. And Hulu now has 30 million monthly users, traffic which Viacom simply cannot ignore. Clearly, there must be some sort of revenue share but neither company is revealing the terms.
Of course, Viacom has not brought CBS’ content to Hulu. Yet. Perhaps the media giant is testing the waters before bringing all of its television content to the platform
But with Viacom putting its content back into Hulu, this shows that big media companies have confidence in the platform once again. And this is surely going to help Hulu’s planned IPO in 2011.
For Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s take on the new partnership, check out his post on here.
Live from The Daily launch event, with Apple's Eddy Cue
11:49AM And we're done! The Daily will be live in about 10 minutes, we're told.
11:48AM What's the split between ads and subscription revenue? It'll be more subscription at first, and then it'll go towards that magic 50/50.
11:48AM Can you talk about having consumers paying for subscriptions when there's a lot of demand from advertisers -- how big could the audience have been if you made it free? Rupert: I think advertisers would pay a much lower rate if it were free. It's better for advertisers -- we'll draw a better class of advertisers at a better rate.
11:47AM Newspapers tend to be targets up-and-down market, tabloids and broadsheets -- where are you targeting this? Jesse: That was the first question our publisher asked Rupert, and Rupert said, well, everybody.
11:44AM What's the editorial mix between news and features? Jesse: read it and find out. I haven't said it's fixed.
11:44AM Will The Daily be free on the web? You can see a page for free if you have a link, but you can't go to thedaily.com and see all the pages for free.
11:43AM Will any of this stuff be on the web? Jesse: Not everything you can do on the iPad can be replicated on the web. A feature that's built on touch UI doesn't make sense on the web. Text, headlines, pictures, that shareable on the web. So where we can do it, we make HTML pages that are on the web -- they're out there. We can use them to share and promote our content.
11:42AM How is this content discoverable on the web? How will search engines get it? Eddy Cue: We've had 10 billion apps downloaded, I think people are finding them. John: We feel good about it. We've focused on this medium and this device. We didn't want to make compromises, and the web demands that you make sacrifices.
11:41AM Has Steve Jobs said anything about the product? Murdoch: Steve called me last week and said that the app was really terrific, he was extremely flattering.
11:40AM What's the voice? Jesse: If you want people to come back, you have to make them think and make them smile. Need a little bit of wit, a little bit of attitude. How do you create content for people using this device? People spend 30, 35, 45 minutes with their iPad -- do we create content that's compelling enough to hold that attention?
11:39AM What are your favorite apps besides New Corp apps? Murdoch: I try playing some of the games, but my 7 year old beat me every time.
11:38AM How long do you anticipate exclusively being on the iPad given other tablets, and are you married to Apple? Murdoch: We've been quite honest with Apple, and we'll be on all major tablets. But we think last year, this year, and next year will belong to the iPad.
11:37AM Why choose to focus on the Daily and not an existing brand like WSJ? Murdoch: The WSJ was the first paper to be a paid app, and it was my excitement about that and how good it looked that made me consider what could be done on a tablet.
11:36AM What about an Australian version of the Daily? Murdoch: Mumble mumble.
11:36AM What is the political tone of the Daily, will it be more centrist? Murdoch: the editorial position will be in the hands of the editor. Jesse: We wanted a new brand. We're patriotic, we love America. We believe in free speech. As for specific editorials, well read it. You'll be surprised.
11:34AM How do you break in for breaking news, and how do you avoid overwhelming people? Lots of different ways to do breaking news -- tickers, twitter feeds, drop in new pages. We can change the front page whenever we want. This isn't a static product. But at the same time, as a consumer I don't like everything changing all the time.
11:33AM Rupert: Just take NY alone. We have two morning shows competing with each other, we have the WSJ, the New York Post, they're all competitive.
11:32AM What are your main competitors? You have to compete with everything now -- that's especially true on the iPad. You have to compete with Angry Birds on some level. That's part of the reason that we've focused on the voice, the style, the use of media.
11:32AM Asking about the Sony Reader snafu yesterday. Eddy Cue: Don't want to talk about the announcement yet, but we'll talk about that soon. We want customers to be happy.
11:31AM How will you determine is this is successful? Murdoch: Yes, when we sell millions. Our ambitions are very big but our costs are very low. We've spent $30 million so far, but it will be running at a cost of half a million a week. We're very confident.
11:29AM How will you measure readership for advertisers? We love advertisers, and we have tech to measure all the metrics they require.
11:29AM When will the subscription model be available to other publishers? Eddy Cue: Available on the Daily today, and there'll be an announcement for other publishers soon.
11:28AM How is back issue content handled -- how much memory is taken up, is there cloud storage? For launch, saved articles are the best way. For now it's on the web. We're working for more internal storage, but it's not there in 1.0
11:27AM They're struggling some chairs onto the stage for the Q&A, and the lights have gone deep, deep blue. We're about to get groovy in Murdoch town.
11:26AM And that's that! They're doing a group photo and then it's Q&A time.
11:25AM "We've built a whole new subscription billing that's as easy as one click. You'll be billed weekly at 99 cents or yearly at $39.99."
11:25AM "You don't have to live in Wisconsin to get the Green Bay Packers as the home team in your paper." Okay, now he's speaking our language.
11:24AM "I've been lucky enough to be using it for the last two weeks and it's amazing. Something of this production value done every day."
11:24AM "From the first day we met with Rupert and his team, we knew they were going to redefine the news."
11:23AM "In the past year, the iPad has launched a whole new category of mobile device... there are over 5000 new apps for iOS. iPad customers are huge consumers of news."
11:23AM "We are thrilled to be here today to help News Corp launch the first national news publication built from the ground up for the iPad."
11:22AM Eddy Cue from Apple now on stage.
11:22AM The Daily publishes every morning, with breaking news at every time. 99 cents a week with deals on the way. First two weeks are free courtesy of Verizon.
11:21AM Talking about touch UI -- they say it's great for adding interactivity to things like sports coverage. Sports pages are customizable for teams and players.
11:20AM There's an apps and games section with reviews and ratings -- it's linked right into the App Store.
11:19AM Showing off web integration -- in addition to links and the built-in browser, there are built-in Twitter feeds on certain pages.
11:19AM You can share articles on Facebook, Twitter, and email. "The Daily is not an island." Showing off the share screen now -- you can record audio comments as well as the usual stuff.
11:18AM Showing off the carousel, a CoverFlow-like view of the pages. There's a shuffle button to bring up new stories you haven't read, an audio button that reads to you like the radio, and a TV-style news anchor.
11:17AM "I think what you're seeing is the first all-media product... we're going to produce up to 100 pages everyday. How do you get through all that? We've come up with some innovative ways to find content in the Daily."
11:16AM Showing off 360-degree photographs and HD videos -- they'll have new content every day.
11:15AM "We have people from television, from newspapers and magazines, working hand in hand with designers and developers. The iPad allows us to tell stories in different ways than we did before."
11:15AM "We've been doing live production for about six weeks now... the staff of the Daily is fantastic, and they've been working around the clock." Showing off the Egypt package. "It's the kind of story that's made for the Daily -- the pictures and video are amazing."
11:13AM "We've taken a fresh look at what it means to tell a story." These are going to be live demos of real content.
11:13AM "Now it's my pleasure to introduce John, Jesse, and Greg to unveil the first edition of The Daily."
11:12AM "The Daily's success will be determined by its utility and its originality... The Daily is not a legacy brand. We have a license to experiment, and a duty to innovate. We believe the Daily will be the model for how stories are told and distributed."
11:11AM "Our target audience is the more than 15 million Americans who are expected to own tablets in the next year."
11:11AM The Daily will be just 14 cents a day -- there are no costs for paper, presses, trucks.
11:10AM "Our aim is for The Daily to be the indispensable source for news, information, and entertainment."
11:09AM "The magic of good newspapers -- and good blogs -- is a deft editor's touch."
11:09AM "There is a growing segment of educated and sophisticated consumers who do not read daily newspapers, but still consume media. This restricts their interests to what has been predefined."
11:08AM "Simply put, the iPad demands that we completely reimagine our craft."
11:08AM "New times require new journalism. Our challenge was to take the best of conventional journalism... and combine it with the best of new technology."
11:07AM "Good morning, I'm Rupert Murdoch and I'm here to welcome you to the launch of The Daily... first I would like to thank Steve Jobs. He's given us this incredible new tablet and given us a new platform. Steve has been a champion of The Daily since day one, along with the brilliant Eddy Cue."
11:06AM And Rupert Murdoch is on stage! A PR person is yelling "Rupert Murdoch!"
11:06AM Okay, the lights are going down -- here we go.
10:57AM The music has perked up with some Caribbean syncopation. If there were any people in this room it would be a real party.
10:49AM We're hearing the actual The Daily app is scheduled to go live at noon, but history suggests it'll go a bit earlier than that. We'll keep an eye on things.
10:44AM It's a pretty nasty day of sleet and snow here in New York and this room is surprisingly empty -- we'd say almost half the seats are empty with 15 minutes to go, and we've heard Rupert Murdoch has canceled a bunch of post-event interviews due to the weather. But we're here. Because we love you. And there were snacks.
10:42AM We're here and sitting down in very comfortable chairs. They are playing extremely chill jams, and the room is lit an a deep purplish-blue. It's kind of like the ultimate 1970s airport lounge experience. Missing: live percussion.
Is the future of media an iPad-exclusive daily newspaper that's delivered automatically overnight using a new subscription service? We're here at the Guggenheim Museum in New York for the launch of News Corp's The Daily to find out -- and Apple's VP of internet services Eddy Cue is scheduled to join Rupert Murdoch on stage, so things could get interesting. Join us, won't you?
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Watch Rupert Murdoch Unveil “The Daily” [LIVE]
News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch is on stage to unveil his latest project: a newspaper designed specifically for the iPad dubbed The Daily.
We’re reporting live from the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, where the event is being held. Murdoch has been joined by Apple’s Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet Services.
The launch was originally rumored to take place on January 19 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where Murdoch was expected to be joined by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. (Jobs has since taken an indefinite leave of absence from the company, citing health issues.) A person familiar with the matter told AllThingsD that the launch was delayed by Apple, who needed some more time to fine tune its new subscription service for publications sold through iTunes.
The key facts:
Two subscription options: weekly at $0.99 or yearly at $39.99, new subscription process from Apple.Many photographs will be formatted as interactive, 360-degree images.Can share articles on Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.Can clip and save stories.Can record audio comments.Will link out to the web, view in in-app browser.Has interactive bells and whistles found frequently in existing iPad magazines.Twitter integrated in parts, especially in Sports section.It will be updated throughout the day.First two weeks are free courtesy of Verizon.Other advertisers include Pepsi and Virgin Atlantic.Sophisticated in-app weather dashboard.Will go live at noon.Issues will not be backlogged. Archive searching coming soon.Initial investment was $30 million, says Murdoch.Costs less than half a million dollars to produce each week, says Murdoch.Murdoch & editor-in-chief skirted questions about political bent.As other tablets get established, we will develop other technology to be on them, Murdoch says. We will be on all the major tablets, he adds.HTML versions of many stories will appear on the web.Non-subscribers can see content shared on social networks for free.Subscriptions will pay for most in the beginning, hope to get to advertising to 50/50.“The Daily Show” & “The Colbert Report” Return to Hulu
Hulu has announced that it has closed a major deal with Viacom, the owner of Comedy Central, VH1, BET and TV Land. As part of the arrangement, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will be making their triumphant return to Hulu.
Terms of the deal were not announced.
“As part of the agreement, a selection of great current programming from MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, TV Land, BET and other Viacom channel brands will also be added to Hulu Plus,” CEO Jason Kilar said in a blog post. “Each episode of leading shows like Jersey Shore, Teen Mom 2, and Tosh.0 will be available starting 21 days after their on-air premiere, and all episodes will remain on the service through the end of their respective season.”
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were Hulu’s top two shows respectively before Viacom yanked them from Hulu’s line-up in March 2010.
What’s changed? The answer is Hulu Plus, the company’s subscription-based service. With a more viable income stream in place, Viacom was more inclined to bring its content back to Hulu. In November, Hulu announced that it had surpassed 30 million users and would generate $240 million in revenue in 2010.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Daily iPad 'newspaper' launches, $.99 weekly or $39.99 per year
Introducing The Daily
First National Daily News Publication Created for iPad
Launches today in the AppleApp Store
New York, NY, February 2, 2011 – Today Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, unveiled The Daily -- the industry's first national daily news publication created from the ground up for iPad.
"New times demand new journalism," said Mr. Murdoch. "So we built The Daily completely from scratch -- on the most innovative device to come about in my time -- the iPad."
"The magic of great newspapers -- and great blogs -- lies in their serendipity and surprise, and the touch of a good editor," continued Mr. Murdoch. "We're going to bring that magic to The Daily -- to inform people, to make them think, to help themengage in the great issues of the day. And as we continue to improve and evolve, we are going to use the best in new technology to push the boundaries of reporting."
The Daily's unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds provides its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important -- but also the best format to deliver these stories to their readers.
"News Corp. is redefining the news experience with The Daily," says Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think it is terrific and iPad users are really going to embrace it."
Led by Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo and Publisher Greg Clayman, The Daily is the first application made available on the App Store as a subscription -- which will be billed directly to an iTunes account. And because this paperless paper requires no multi-million dollar presses or delivery trucks, it will be priced at just 99 cents a week (or $39.99 for an annual subscription).
"The Daily launches at a moment when advances in technology are changing the job of the modern editor," says Mr. Angelo. "These advances are giving us new ways to tell stories. We intend to take advantage of all of them, and make The Daily the new voice for a new era."
Each day The Daily will publish up to 100 pages focused on six key areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. It will offer views from across the political spectrum. They will come from across cultures and generations, across America and the world.
The Daily will feature Sudoku and crossword puzzles, localized weather reports, and a customizablesports package that captures news on the user's favorite teams. Subscribers will also be able to leave comments on Daily stories in either written or audio form -- as well as bookmark them in-app to read later.
As readers move through The Daily's content, they will be helped by several highly intuitive navigation tools. And while The Daily lives on the iPad, most of its articles can be easily shared via Facebook, Twitter and email. The Daily will link out to the web, as well as bring the web into the app.
"In short, says Mr. Murdoch, "we believe The Daily will be the model for how stories are told and consumed in this digital age."
The Daily has bureaus in New York and Los Angeles, as well as stringers across the country. Full company bios are available at TheDaily.com/about. Executive staff includes:
* John Kilpatrick - Executive Creative Director
* Steve Alperin - Managing Editor
* Mike Nizza - Managing Editor, News
* Richard Johnson - LA Bureau Chief
* Sasha Frere-Jones - Editor, Arts & Life
* Chris D'Amico - Editor, Sports
* Elisabeth Eaves - Editor, Opinion
* Peter Ha - Editor, Apps, Games and Technology
The Daily is also changing the way advertising is offered and consumed within a news publication. Full-page ad units are completely interactive, customizable, and offer a rich mix of branding and direct response opportunities. Launch advertisers include HBO,Macy's, Paramount, Pepsi Max, Range Rover, Verizon, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
"With The Daily, Rupert Murdoch has given us the chance to rethink the entire experience of news delivery and consumption," said Mr. Clayman. "The ability to actively listen to and engage with our audience means we can continually provide an experiencethat consumers value in this fast-evolving tablet space. Together with our customers, our advertising partners, and the team at The Daily, we are excited to create a new form of media."
About The Daily
The Daily is a first-of-its-kind daily national news publication built exclusively as an application for tablet computing. It provides readers the engaging experience of a magazine combined with the immediacy of the web and the need-to-know content of a newspaper, all while elevating user experience beyond the printed word. The Daily is a subscription-based news product, published 365 days a year, at the cost of $0.99 cents a week or $39.99 a year. For more information on The Daily go to: www.thedaily.com.
News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets as of September 30, 2010 of approximately US$56 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$33 billion. News Corporation is a diversified global media company with operations in six industry segments: cable network programming; filmed entertainment; television; direct broadcast satellite television; publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Hands-On With The Daily (Demo Video)
After today’s unveiling of The Daily at a press event at the Guggenheim museum in New York City, we were handed iPads loaded with the news app. I shot the video above with my iPhone to give a quick sense of what it looks like and the navigation.
It looks like a magazine more than a newspaper, with lush photography and the occasional interactive graphic or video in place of a photo. The first thing I noticed is that there are no links in any of the stories, although you can share stories via Facebook, Twitter, or email. But that is about the extent of the social features in the app. As I expected, it is does not (yet) offer any social reading features like Flipboard or the yet-to-launch News.me
To find your way around, there is atable of content, but that only lists the top ten stories. You can flip through chronologically or navigate by section (news, Gossip, Opinion, Arts & Life, Apps & Games, or Sports). When you are in a story, you can tap to expose a timeline with thumbnail images of each page up top. Finally, there is a carousel view that lets you go through the issue like you can with album covers in iTunes. It would be helpful if there were a content page that simply listed all the headlines in that issue with links.
The ads take up their own pages, just like in a magazine. I noticed that the ads take a lot longer to load than the news pages. That could be a problem if it is not fixed in terms of pleasing advertisers.
You can save stories for later reading, but apparently the app is loaded with new stories every day. So unless you read or save the stories you are interested in, for now you are out of luck. On stage, News corp indicated they are working on this issue.
Related:
Rupert Murdoch: “New Times Demand New Journalism”
The Daily Event Liveblog: Follow Along As The Newspaper Hits The Information Age
Murdoch: The Daily Will Cost $0.14 Per Day Or $0.99 Per Week
One-Click Subscriptions Come To the iPad
What Are The Odds We’ll See An Android Version Of The Daily?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
“The Daily”: A Peek at the iPad-Only Newspaper’s Social Media Strategy
Ahead of the launch of Rupert Murdoch’s much-anticipated (and now delayed) iPad newspaper, many of us at Mashable have wondered exactly how the app-based publication will approach and utilize social media.
A source familiar with The Daily‘s social media plans has shared a few key items about its strategy, which is being headed up by Abigail Jones, a young woman with an impressive resume (dual masters degrees from Columbia Journalism School and the University of Edinburgh, bestselling co-author of the nonfictional Restless Virgins: Love, Sex and Survival in a New England Prep School), but little, we understand, experience with social media tools and strategy specifically.
Jones will concentrate much of her energy on The Daily‘s one blog, which will be hosted at blog.thedaily.com and powered by Tumblr. Like the Tumblrs of several established news media organizations, Jones will deconstruct stories covered by the publication, conducting interviews with staff about the reporting process on a particular story to entice the platform’s users to subscribe to The Daily in the App Store for a rumored $0.99 per week, or $4.25 per month.
Jones, we’re told, will also leverage Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube to promote the day’s content — the cover, links to top stories and behind-the-scenes coverage, etc. — and to engage in conversations with readers and prospective readers alongside staff, who will particularly focus on Twitter to engage with audiences. From what we understand, content from the app will be shareable across social media channels, although our source was unable to go into further detail about exactly how that will work. We suspect that — as seen with Food & Wine magazine — users will be able to link to a web version of the article (perhaps trapped behind a paywall) from the app.
All of that sounds fine and well, but it’s not yet clear how Jones or the rest of The Daily‘s staff will keep pace with the real-time, 24/7 news cycle of the real-time social web, given that the publication does not plan to add content or push updates to the edition it releases to the App Store every morning. We’re also curious if The Daily will allow comments in the app and/or on its site, what the site’s paywall structure will be like and how it plans to cultivate its initially small community of core readers.
The Daily‘s early days will present a unique set of challenges for Jones, at any rate.