Will The Daily Make It Past Year One?
By 
Bloomberg reported today that the iPad-only publication, The Daily, is averaging about 120,000 readers per week. That is only a quarter of the number of paying readers the media outlet needs to turn a profit.
The above number may not even include paying subscribers. According to Bloomberg, News Corps’ experimental digital newspaper has reported the number of unique weekly visitors, which includes those who pay, and those who may be taking advantage of the free two-week subscription.
John Nitti, executive vice president of Publicis Groupe SA (PUB)’s media-buying division Zenith Optimedia brought this information to light. Nitti works with The Daily’s sponsor Verizon Wireless and said that the newspaper will not reveal the number of paying subscribers.
In February, News Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer, Rupert Murdoch stated that the iPad newspaper would need 500,000 paying subscribers in order to break even. After the initial two-week trial, subscriptions run $0.99 per week.
Bloomberg goes on to say that The Daily is “not breaking through” as a viable news source for readers. Writer Ken Doctor stated the digital paper “isn’t compelling enough to change people’s reading habits and its marking push.”
News Corp. recently released a Facebook mini version of The Daily for free on the social networking site and also plans to make the publication available for other tablet operating systems. The company also uses advertising dollars to keep the paper running, but Doctor believes that the iPad-only news reader has a harder time generating revenue because it cannot entice advertisers as easily. News Organizations like The New York Times have the benefit of the paper, websites and apps to generate ad revenue.
As The Daily’s moves toward the close of its first year in existence, there is reason to wonder if News Corp will continue to care for its fledgling experiment.
