News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch unveiled his iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, today at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
"In the tablet era, there's room for a fresh and new voice," Murdoch said. "The iPad demands that we completely reinvent our craft."
The Daily will feature nearly 100 pages of original content produced each day in six different categories: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. Readers can subscribe to the publication which will be delivered to the iPad automatically each morning and can opt to be billed each week for $0.99 or each year for $39.99. Murdoch said that comes down to $0.14 a day.
"No million dollar presses, no trucks, and we're passing on that savings to the reader," Murdoch said.
Among the bells and whistles included are HD video and 360 degree photos. Users can navigate through The Daily via a carousel at the bottom of the app.
On hand at Wednesday's event were Apple's head of Internet Services, Eddie Cue; The Daily's Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo; and News Corp.'s Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller.
"It's the first national daily news publication built from the ground up for the iPad," Cue said.
The Daily's subscription offering is also a new frontier for the iPad. In fact, it's one of the few apps that actually has a model. While most consumer magazines have an app for the iPad, few, if any,have a subscription model. But Cue said that's about to change.
"[Subscriptions are] available today on The Daily," Cue said. "You'll hear an announcement from us soon for other news publications."
With content spanning many different subjects, Miller said that The Daily is an important tool to tell stories.
The arrival of The Daily has been anticipated for some time. Before Apple CEO Steve Jobs went on medical leave, he was slated to appear on stage with Murdoch to reveal The Daily Jan. 19 at an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Today's launch was confirmed last Thursday when invitations were sent to journalists.
Despite Jobs' absence from the event, Murdoch said the Apple CEO "has been a champion behind The Daily since day one."
However, it was delayed so that Apple and News Corp. reportedly could iron out some kinks with the subscription platform. News Corp. confirmed the delay, but would not disclose further details as to the reason.
But The Daily's staff of 100 respected journalists that Murdoch nabbed from such publications as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Forbes weren't sitting idly by in the lead-up to the launch. They had been working to churn out dummy issues to an exclusive email list of 1,000 readers.
However, The Daily won't be exclusive to the iPad forever.
"As other tablets get established, we will develop the tech to go on them," Murdoch said. "We will be on all the major tablets."
But that won't happen for a few years, Murdoch added. To see what all the buzz is about, you can download The Daily for free for the next two weeks.
PCMag is testing out The Daily now, so check back for a full review later.