WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

Tentative name: “The Daily”

Publisher: News Corporation.

Headquarters: New York, USA.

Digital platforms: Apple  iPad and Google Android based tablets.

Target: general readership, offering short, snappy stories that could be digested quickly.

Main print competitors: USA Today and The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal  national editions.

Launching date: before Christmas.

Budget: $30 million.

Tentative subscription cost: $1 per week (The Wall Street Journal on iPad is available for a $4 weekly subscription fee).

Staff: 150 editors, journalists, IT experts and managers.

First big guns: The New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones hired as culture editor; Richard Johnson (gossip) and Jesse Angelo (crime) come from The New York Post; Mike Nizza from AOL, The Atlantic and The New York Times.

Business manager: Greg Clayman, former head of Viacom’s digital division,

Key-factors for success: original content.

Why a tablet? Because is the iPad is “a game-changer,”

Why Rupert Murdoch is so much involved in the project?: Because he believes that The Daily, properly executed, will demonstrate that consumers are willing to pay for high quality, original content specifically designed for a burgeoning category of high-end digital readers.

Mobile first: As Murdoch said, “Mobile technology will transform the print business. We’re going to see, around the world, hundreds and hundreds of millions of these devices – we’ve got to develop our methods of presentation of news.”

In summary:Murdoch’s number 1 and most exciting project right now.

More at our Harvard Tablets Summit.

Be there!

I got a few minutes ago this message from The Times of London.

Well Lord Mandelson, “The Princess of Darkness” (a poor soul now trying to stay under the political sun after losing the power) sells excerpts of his memories to The Times, not to The Guardian or The Observer.

And Rupert Murdoch plays in a big way this exclusive content adding some extra video and graphic features in order to tell the market that if you are a “club member” you have some “membership perks”.

Good move!

The Times and The Sunday Times are ready to charge for access to their online editions.

A bold move.

Typical of Rupert Murdoch.

Like the typical trashing that he gets in the last few years regarding his fight against the “free for all”

Well, very soon we will know.

And… what if Rupert Murdoch is right?

I will suspend my judgement.

He loves newspapers and is taking big risks.

So I will not be surprise if, again, he right.

UPDATE:

Watch here Rupert Murdoch on the iPad, Apple and Steve Jobs.

Two new speakers for the Oxford Tablet Summit.

Javier Zarracina from The Boston Globe (USA) and Frédéric Filloux the former editor of Libération and 20 Minutes (France).

The news came with the last quote from Rupert Murdioch about the tablets:

“If you have less newspapers and more of these [tablets]… it may well be the saving of the newspaper industry.”

More information about the INMA/INNOVATION Oxford Tablet Summit here.

Rupert Murdoch using the Arab proverb:

“If a wind blows, ride it.”

The best lines:

“These days our homes and offices are cluttered with the latest electronic devices. It is easy to be dazzled by this new technology. But the bright and shiny wonders that technology gives us can be like the desert sun – they can blind us to what is real and valuable. Amid the digital dazzle, we risk missing the magic: the creative content that brings these devices to life.”

Great speech.

Read it in full here.

Read here, free, the Foreword written by Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation’s Chairman and CEO, for our 2009 INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS Global Report and get here the full edition now on sale.

Andrew Clark reports at the Sunday Morning Herald:

• Rupert Murdoch said the iPad and the Kindle would be ”unloved and unsold” without creativity from companies like his News Corporation.

• Tablet computers, e-readers and smartphones would be unloved ”empty vessels” without quality creative content.

• He revealed the company was in ”advanced discussions” with hand-held device manufacturers about a subscription model allowing people to access media content ”whenever and wherever they want it”.

• ”Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things digital,” he said. ”We’re on the cusp of a digital revolution from which our shareholders will profit handsomely.”

• In a reference to technology such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle, he said such ”fabulous devices” would be ”unloved and unsold” without creativity from companies such as his own, adding they were powered by content – not batteries.

• ”Instead of the existential debate about value, now we’re merely arguing about valuation,” he said. ”Consumers want content delivered immediately and on a variety of devices. They’re willing to pay to be entertained and informed.”

Watch here the most recent and longest interview with Rupert Murdoch.

Tired?

Yes, but still willing to move ahead.

Retiring?

No.

Pay for content?

Yes.

How soon?

Very soon.

Stay tuned.

Reuters reports:

“An industry that gives away its content is cannibalizing its ability to do good reporting,” Rupert Murdoch said.

(Murdoch by Luis Grañena, in our 2009 INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPER Global Report)

Why News Corp. chairman and managing director Rupert Murdoch announced that he was going to start charging for online news content by July 2010 and not right now?

It’s amazing how just a declaration became like a biblical message.

Murdoch dixit!

Well, I an happy to read this TIME’s Belinds Luscombe analysis and agree 100 per cent.

Yes, Murdoch was trying to confront the bad results, and save the face in front of investors and shareholders and as Belinda says:

“Murdoch cares little for Wall Street, but he knows his investors need to have confidence that he’s on his game. The switch to a pay model smacks of virility and aggression, the Murdoch of yore. “If we’re successful,” he said, “we’ll be followed fast by other media.”

So, don’t expect miracles or magic solutions for the online payments fiasco.

Only a few and very unique news websitres will be able to charge.

Period.