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TECH SPACE
Murdoch launches iPad newspaper 'The Daily'
by Staff Writers
New York (AFP) Feb 2, 2011


News Corp. puts Myspace on the block
New York (AFP) Feb 2, 2011 - News Corp. put ailing social network Myspace up for sale on Wednesday. "We recognize that the plan to allow Myspace to reach its full potential may be best developed under a new ownership structure and we're evaluating those strategic alternatives," News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey said. "With a new content focus and structure in place we believe now is the right time for News Corp. to consider strategic options (for Myspace)," Carey said in a conference call with financial analysts. News Corp. bought Myspace for 580 million dollars in 2005 but it has been overtaken in recent years by Facebook, which has grown to more than 500 million members while Myspace's numbers have dwindled. Earlier this month, Myspace announced it was cutting some 500 jobs, nearly half its staff. In November, Carey put Myspace on notice saying the losses at the social network were "unsustainable."

News Corp. quarterly net profit up 150 percent
New York (AFP) Feb 2, 2011 - News Corp. said Wednesday that quarterly net profit rose more than 150 percent to $642 million on a strong performance by its television businesses. Revenue was up slightly in the second quarter of News Corp.'s fiscal year, rising to $8.76 billion from $8.68 billion in the same period a year ago. Earnings per share of 29 cents were better than the 28 cents per share forecast by Wall Street analysts. "News Corporation's second quarter results demonstrate the mounting vigor of our global channels business," News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch said in a statement. "In the US market, our cable channels are still expanding and adding subscribers, while increasing their revenues and profits at a double-digit pace on the strength of affiliate fee increases and buoyant advertising markets. "I am also pleased with the continued recovery of our US broadcasting business, including our local TV stations and the Fox Broadcasting Company," Murdoch said.

Operating income from News Corp.'s movie business fell to $189 million from $324 million a year ago, when it released "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." "Black Swan" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" failed to make up for the disappointing receipts for "Gulliver's Travels." News Corp. said advertising revenue was higher in its three main newspaper markets -- Australia, Britain and the United States. Operating income for the publishing segment rose to $380 million after reporting a loss of $90 million in the same quarter a year ago. News Corp. also reported lower search and advertising revenue at social network Myspace but did not provide any figures. The company did not mention The Daily in its earnings release, the digital newspaper for Apple's iPad launched by Murdoch at an event in New York earlier in the day.

News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday launched "The Daily," a digital newspaper created for Apple's iPad, in the latest move in his drive to get consumers to pay for news online.

"New times demand new journalism," the 79-year-old News Corp. chairman and chief executive said as he took the wraps off the hotly awaited publication at a press event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Murdoch, an enthusiastic fan of the iPad, said there will be no print version of The Daily and it will only be available on Apple's touchscreen tablet computer for at least this year.

The Daily will be sold through Apple's App Store and iTunes and cost 99 cents a week or $39.99 a year. News Corp. will get 70 cents from each weekly subscription with Apple pocketing the rest.

Murdoch, who was joined on stage by Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet Services at iPad maker Apple, praised the iPad as an "incredible new platform" and said The Daily would provide a "fresh new voice."

The Daily would combine the latest technology with "shoe leather reporting, good editing and a skeptical eye," he said. "The Daily will be the model of how stories are told and consumed in this digital age."

Asked later by his Fox Business Network about The Daily's editorial stance, Murdoch said it will be a "very patriotic American newspaper that believes in free thinking and free markets and freedom for everybody."

He said he would consider it a success "when we sell millions."

"Our ambitions are very big, but our costs are very low," he said, adding that News Corp. had spent around $30 million developing the publication.

Without the need for news print, printing presses or trucks, Murdoch said operating costs for The Daily would run about half a million dollars a week.

He said the publication will eventually be available on other tablets.

"We expect to be on all major tablets. But we believe that this year and maybe next year really belong to Apple," he said.

In the Fox interview, Murdoch said "everybody in America who can afford one is going to buy a tablet" and "there will be well over a billion around the world" eventually.

The Daily, which has hired a staff of about 100 people from the New Yorker, Forbes, the New York Post and other publications, will arrive on a subscriber's iPad every morning and be updated during the day.

"This is not a once-a-day static product," editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo said. "We can drop in a new page any time."

The Daily's first edition featured a front page picture of a demonstrator in Egypt and the headline "Falling Pharaoh," an interview with former White House budget director Peter Orszag, his first since leaving the post, and a story on actress Natalie Portman's pregnancy.

The content is organized around news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, applications and games and features stories, graphics, video, photos and the ability to share links on Facebook and Twitter or by email.

The Daily was originally scheduled to be unveiled in San Francisco last month but the event was delayed at the last minute by Apple's announcement that chief executive Steve Jobs was going on medical leave.

Murdoch said he spoke with Jobs last week and News Corp. released a statement by the Apple chief.

"News Corp. is redefining the news experience with The Daily," Jobs said. "We think it is terrific and iPad users are really going to embrace it."

The Daily is Murdoch's latest attempt to find a way to charge readers for content online in an era of shrinking newspaper circulation and eroding print advertising revenue.

The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription for full access to WSJ.com and Britain's The Times and The Sunday Times, two other News Corp. papers, recently erected pay walls around their websites.

Murdoch is not the only publisher looking to the iPad for revenue, and most major US newspapers and magazines have created paid or free versions of their publications for the iPad.

In November, British tycoon Richard Branson launched a monthly style and culture magazine solely for the iPad called "Project."

Dan Kennedy, an assistant professor of journalism at Boston's Northeastern University, said he sees The Daily as an experiment for Murdoch.

"It's difficult for me to picture it being anything much more than a very modest success, almost a test lab more than anything else," he said.

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