Rupert Murdoch to launch iPad-only newspaper, the Daily

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Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp., is hoping to lure the next generation of newspaper readers with the launch early next year of the Daily, an iPad-centric newspaper currently in development at News Corp.’s Manhattan offices, according to the New York Times.

Murdoch is sinking about $30 million into this venture, which will have a staff of about 100. It’s the first ‘newspaper’ designed exclusively for tablet computers and is expected to include integrated media and photography constructed especially for the iPad, the New York Times said.

The Daily will incorporate some content from the rest of Murdoch’s media empire (Fox Sports will provide some video), but the majority of the Daily’s content is expected to be original, according to the report.

This is not Murdoch’s first foray into paid digital content. Owners of the iPad can buy a digital version of the Wall Street Journal through a subscription from Dow Jones, under the News Corp. umbrella. Last month, plans for Project Alesia -- a rather grand title to match an ambitious plan to bundle all of News Corp.’s publications, along with the publications of other big media companies, into one digital newsstand -- was called off.

Although the Daily will have a new gloss more integrated with the way media works today, it will still be a twist on the old newspaper: produced in the evening and ‘printed’ for the next morning, the New York Times said. Even with updates, it begs the question -- how can any newspaper, even a digital one, compete with the speed of a news website?

So it remains to be seen whether the Daily -- which will cost 99 cents a week, according to various news reports -- will lead a charge for digital (and paid) newspapers available on the slew of gadgets people interact with daily, or whether this will be a shot that will miss the mark.

[Update: The Los Angeles Times first broke the news that News Corp. planned a national newspaper for tablet computers and cellphones in August. Go here for the complete story.

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