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Murdoch’s Daily: post-Web innovation or CD-ROM flashback?

February 3, 2011 by Scott Rosenberg 18 Comments

A decade ago, if you were a “digital” person — if you were interested in how computer technology was changing our culture and economy — then you were a Web person. The Web, built on top of the Internet and ultimately eclipsing its source, dispatched its competitors — the closed online services, the packaged-goods multimedia/CD-ROM industry — and became, for a time, the single face of the digital revolution.

This week’s launch of Rupert Murdoch’s iPad “newspaper,” the Daily, is a milestone: It’s the first significant attempt, since the Web conquered the digital world in 1995, to create a major new media product that embraces technology yet spurns the Web — and the public Internet, too. Chris Anderson’s Wired “Web is Dead” package was the warning shot for this phenomenon, but the Daily’s introduction puts it in front of us in palpable touch-screen form. It boldly declares: We’re digital people but we’re not Web people.

Why do I say that the Daily spurns the Web and the Net? I mean, beyond the obvious reason that there is no Web site that offers its contents in a convenient form each day. It’s not just that. The Daily also contains no links. (Some today see this as a plus; I do not.) There are no RSS feeds. No email addresses to contact the writers and editors. No email alerts or mailing list. Comments on the articles, yes, but not reachable through the Web. No, archives, back issue index, or search! (They’re on Twitter, however. They have a blog, too, and it’s not bad.)

In other words, most of the apparatus of two-way communication that every serious digital publishing venture of the past 15 years has taken as a given is missing from the Daily. They’re serious about this iPad-only thing! But they don’t seem to realize that they’re repeating the mistakes of the very recent past.

The Daily’s designers are eager to show off sparkling graphics, integrated video, and the swipe-ability that the iPad allows. Unfortunately, they are defining “interactivity” the way the lost pioneers of the 1994-era CD-ROM “multimedia revolution” defined it. They have built a gleaming but limited set of interfaces for users to interact with static, prepackaged content. The Web taught us that true interactivity was the interaction between people moderated by the network — along with the personalization you could build into the network based on those people’s behavior.

The Daily’s one concession to today’s Web is the mechanisms it provides for its readers to share individual stories via the usual routes — Facebook, Twitter, email. The recipient of your share notice receives a link to a URL that’s a Web-page version of the Daily article. We don’t know how long these web addresses will be good for. But for the moment, at least, it’s pretty easy to assemble a set of links that points you to the Web-accessible versions of each article in the day’s Daily edition. That’s what Andy Baio has done.

How long will Baio’s index last? Will it still be easy to assemble after the Daily’s first-two-weeks-free period ends? Will the News Corp. folks ask him to take it down? We’ll have to wait and see.

The question is whether the Daily’s secession from the Web is a matter of convenience or ideology for its creators. Did they put their energy into spiffing things up for the iPad — the hard, fun, innovative part — figuring that they can circle back to beef up their Web offerings later? Or do they feel that it is their calling, their mission, to leave the Web behind?

My prediction: If they’re pragmatists about the Web, they’ve got a chance — they can adapt and evolve their product so it’s a little more up to date, less hermetic and more inclusive of the public that lives online today. But if they’re ideologues — if they really believe that what is essentially a magazine “pasted on a screen” is the future of journalism — then they’re in deep trouble, and the Daily will only be Murdoch’s latest and most spectacular digital money-sink.

Filed Under: Media

Comments

  1. Wade Roush

    February 3, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    Scott, great post. I’m writing about this same question in my Xconomy column for tomorrow. But to react to your post quickly: I actually think The Daily is deliberately about “static, prepackaged content.” So are magazines! And they did pretty well for the better part of a century.

    The Web imposes its own set of constraints around design and usability, and while the iPad can tap the Web, it is not *of* the Web, which is what has created all this room for experimentation. I, for one, think it’s going to be pretty interesting to watch how readers use The Daily. It would not surprise me if The Daily succeeded in proving that a good chunk of iPad owners are looking, at the end of a long work day, for a lean-back, magazine-style experience more than a lean-forward, two-way experience. If that audience is willing to inject some cash back into the news business, that can’t be bad.

  2. David Wright

    February 3, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    Digital Publishing still needs content to publish. Is the Daily actually providing any content that is unique, different, not available elsewhere? What if they signed popular columnists to write only for the Daily?

    Some interactivity may be over-rated. Does anyone really bother to read the comments people post to news stories on newspaper or TV news websites? The posters are the same people who dominated chat rooms and killed conversation in that space.

    Is” the apparatus of two-way communication” for mass publishers like ATMs were for banks? They didn’t didn’t improve profits for banks, but you had to have them because every other bank did. Now you have white-label banks that don’t have their own ATMs, but license them from others for their customers to use.

    Has the Daily actually decided that the cost of supporting interactivity can’t be justified by measurable benefits for the publisher?

    One could say that I am justifying the value of interactivity by writing this comment, but this is in response to a blog post, not a news story. Blogs are a means of communication for a sub-group of people, even large ones. I know I really enjoyed “Dreaming in Code” and recommended it to my friends in tech, but not to anyone else. It is the fact that this interactivity is at a lower scale that makes it valuable to that interested sub-group people.

    Even with the decline in circulation and rumored disappearance of newspapers, this comment is much different than the scale of, say, of the NY Times, or even Murdoch’s NY Post (are its writers going to have their work also published on the Daily?).

    As Dennis Miller used to say, “that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.” But I would not be surprised if I was right.

  3. Toby James Pestridge

    February 4, 2011 at 6:47 am

    You can view an archive of The Daily online, for free, and without an iPad. Andy Baio has created a Tumblr site called The Daily: Indexed http://thedailyindexed.tumblr.com/

  4. Scott Rosenberg

    February 4, 2011 at 6:51 am

    That’s really the question, isn’t it, Wade: Whether people still want to buy the package. Agree it will be interesting to see!

    The “end of a long workday” idea strikes me as problematic today, though; just as the morning newspaper seems ancient by evening (it’s 24 hours behind the news cycle), won’t the Daily have the same problem?

  5. Wade Roush

    February 4, 2011 at 7:24 am

    Yep, that’s the question.

    My piece is up: http://www.xconomy.com/national/2011/02/04/tablet-journalism-can-rupert-murdochs-ipad-adventure-save-the-news-business/

    I don’t think The Daily will have to deal with the evening newspaper staleness dilemma — they can update the publication throughout the day. If big news breaks, they can just push a new front page or a pop-up alert.

  6. Peter

    February 4, 2011 at 7:58 am

    you may turn out to be spot on but you must also appreciate Rupert’s attempys to protect his franchise. He’s experimenting with his own money, for the wolr to see and openly criticize. As an aside, I just read News Corp posted huge increases in net earnings despite massive MySpace losses.

  7. Henrik Ahlen

    February 5, 2011 at 1:35 am

    I produced a lot of CD-ROM media in the 90s and feel that the current crop of iPad media apps are indeed reminiscent of those days, incorporating all the limitations of a pressed disc while boasting about the bells and whistles of animations, video, audio etc.
    I wrote about this in July: http://alfabravo.com/2010/07/05/ipad-media-apps/

    The Daily has since then introduced a few minor ways to enable article sharing etc, but it is still very much a CD-ROM like product.
    But I applaud Murdoch for doing this, we need much more experimentation now to evolve the whole online media sector, both bud budget efforts like the Daily and small, innovative, evolving developments that are now appearing everywhere.

  8. Carolina_Norbert

    February 5, 2011 at 11:01 am

    This is a product in desperate search of a market. I can read all the news I need on the Wall Street Journal’s website, CNBC, Fox News, Google News etc. This isn’t about the end of anything. It’s just a splashy launch with lots of free publicity. Hit the snooze button.

Trackbacks

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  10. jardenberg kommenterar - 4 Feb, 2011 #jjk | Jardenberg Unedited says:
    July 29, 2014 at 1:47 am

    jardenberg kommenterar – 4 Feb, 2011 #jjk

    4th februari 2011
    4/02/11

    Standard

    3

    Umbrella cat
    – Åhhh. Ger mig lite samma känsla som underbara reklamen ”är man stor måste man vara snäll” (har du tänkt på det, det finns massor av reklam som vi tycker om också).
    Från the amazing Reddit
    Den här bilden gillade jag verkligen, tror den lär komma till nytta. Liksom den här.
    Och nu, nästa grej. Check. Toodledo!
    Marco.org – Ode to the App Review team
    – Det här behövde fanimej också sägas: ”App Review team: Thank you, and keep up the good work.” +1
    iCapitalism
    – Haha, vilken underbar idé. Den skulle kunna användas för undervisning i många discipliner. Och vilken tur att apple stoppade den ;)
    Who is the most Respected Venture Capitalists?
    – Hmm, kanske borde sätta som mål att nå in på den här listan innan jag fyller femtio ;) Snacka om utmaning. Och för egen del hade jag nog allt lagt Graham högre, jag tycker han gör lite mer skillnad än många av de andra…
    En Rapport om Twitter – men var är Nyheterna? | http.tv4.se
    – (Lite konstig ordning, den här skulle in precis före länken till twittercensus, men jag blev distraherad och drog iväg en länk mellan. Sorry)
    Så här är det, David är klok. Vi måste alltid ta alla undersökningar med en rejäl nypa salt. Sedan är jag inte helt säker på att det avslutande uppropet mot akademin är hela svaret ;)
    Anders Mildner om #journalistroll – live på lördag | jardenberg unedited
    – Det här ska du inte missa. Är du i skåne kommer du till Lund, annars hänger du med på http://jardenberg.se/live kl 13.00 imorgon, lördag. Basta!
    Twittercensus
    – Här hämtar du hem rapporten om den svenska twittersfären och här http://internetworld.idg.se/2.1006/1.366650/sa-manga-svenskar-twittrar läser du Fredrik Wass intervju med Hampus Brynolf
    Så sätter du upp en blixtsnabb WordPress-server | Jonathan Sulo
    – Konkreta poster ger värdefulla kommentarer. Den här åker in i min pinboard iaf.
    Mayor Bloomberg Talks To Facebook About City Site – DNAinfo.com
    – Bloomberg, föregångare på opengov-området verkar nu bestämt sig för att dialog är bra också. Med tanke på penetrationen av Facebook i NYC skulle det kunna fungera som ett strålande intranät för staden ;)
    Och han har ju redan Rachel Sterne på plats. http://www.dnainfo.com/20110124/manhattan/city-appoints-first-chief-digital-officer
    Murdoch’s Daily: post-Web innovation or CD-ROM flashback? — Scott Rosenberg’s Wordyard
    – Hahaha, att jag inte tänkt på det. Skämigt faktiskt. Hela iPad-hustering för mediabranschen är ju de gamla CD-utgåvorna igen. Jag minns Puls och Resa som Aftonbladet snodde ihop ett par framgångsrika editioner av, innan man runt -95 insåg att det var internet som var the shit.
    Tänk att vara tillbaka på den rutan 16 år senare. Det hade jag inte trott.
    The Daily: Indexed
    – Artiklarna från The Daily finns på nätet, nästan utan undantag – men de har ingen hemsida, inget index, ingen navigerbarhet. Så då byggde Andy Baio det. På Tumblr ;) Läs hans text om det här http://waxy.org/2011/02/the_daily_indexed/
    Det finns kommentarer och fler varianter här http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110203/bs_yblog_thecutline/fake-unofficial-daily-tumblrs-terrorize-murdochs-daily
    Moving to IPv6: Now for the hard part (FAQ) | Deep Tech – CNET News
    – En lagom djup FAQ om övergången från IPv4 till IPv6. Är du det minsta intresserad av vår internet så bör du försöka ta dig genom den här. OK?
    My thoughts on this week’s debate
    – Till och med de stora katterna ger sig in i fighten. Det är väl helt givet att Bing använder Googles sökresultat – så löjligt att inte låtsas om det.
    Be honest and do good shit.
    Myndighet slår larm om it-läckor | Näringslivsnyheter | SvD
    – Det borde nog stå i faktarutan hur många av fortifikationsverkets anläggningar som är datahallar… Det finns ett givet egenintresse att blåsa i visselpipan här, misstänker jag.
    TV coverage limited as journalists are targeted in Cairo – CNN.com
    – Det är här är otäckt. Efter att ha sett den här videon är det inte svårt att föreställa sig situationen som ledde fram till att Bert Sundström ligger med knivskador på ett sjukhus. Fan.
    Minikonferens om att livesända #allakanstreama | SocialVideo Production
    – Missa inte det här, live på nätet imorgon!
    The Explosion of Free Porn Online — New York Magazine
    – Älskar rubriken: ”The Geek-Kings of Smut”
    iPhone Controlled HTML5 Logo and Color Cube
    – Läckrast på länge. In short: du kan fjärrstyra ett html5 element i din webbläsare med din iphones safari, utan att installera en enda app. Det är nog ett coolt exempel att ta upp imorgon ;)
    Subscribed to googlechrome
    Subscribed to SVT
    Dela det här:FacebookTwitterGoogleLinkedInPinterest

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    Show Comments (3)

    Svara

    David Hall
    februari 4th, 2011 at 9:26 f m

    5. Fördelen med akademin är att en artikel skulle genomgå peer review-processen (såvida det inte är av typen Merck-sponsrad Elsevier-tidskrift) och konstigheter fångas. Det kan ju även vara ett konsultföretag mån om sitt varumärke som gör en genomarbetad och vederhäftig studie.
    Det underliggande arbetet här verkar okej (och är antagligen det hittills mest omfattande) men rapporten saknar helt enkelt för mycket för att jag ska anse det användbart för annat än att säga att det fanns minst 90000 svenskspråkiga Twitter-konton i december 2010. Det står förstås Intellecta fritt att släppa det här materialet, det som gör mig mest bekymrad (om än inte förvånad) är det okritiska mottagandet.

    Svara

    Lars Tong Strömberg
    februari 8th, 2011 at 7:44 e m

    Apropå #10 är det här en annan mycket läsvärd och kul skriven artikel på samma tema:
    http://interfacelab.com/is-this-really-the-future-of-magazines-or-why-didnt-they-just-use-html-5/

    Svara

    Joakim Jardenberg
    februari 8th, 2011 at 9:13 e m

    Tack (och förlåt;)
    #2 http://jardenberg.se/b/jardenberg-kommenterar-28-may-2010/

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