News Corp’s iPad-only newspaper The Daily is finally official and we couldn’t be happier to put this drawn-out ordeal behind us. News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch was on hand at a press conference on Wednesday to introduce his new pride and joy, and details are as follows: The Daily, as one might assume, will ba a daily paper — available only on the iPad to start — and new issues will be available 365 days each year. The Daily will be interactive, packed full of 360-degree photos and original video content, and some articles will even be read aloud from within the app. There will also be Web-friendly versions of articles to share on Twitter, Facebook and so on. The publication will include crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles and customizable content such as weather forecasts and scores from your favorite sports teams. More interesting than The Daily itself is the imminent introduction of Apple’s new App Store subscription option for publishers, which will allow companies to build apps that serve subscription-based content. The new functionality is only available on The Daily for the time being, but Apple VP Eddy Cue said an announcement on availability is forthcoming.
The Daily app will be available in the App Store starting at 12:00PM EST today, and subscriptions will cost $0.99 per week or $39.99 for a one-year subscription. Interested parties will also be happy to learn that the first two weeks of The Daily will be free thanks to a sponsorship agreement with Verizon.
Read [iTunes link]
