“The Daily”—the tablet-only news outlet created by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and American media mogul and CEO of News Corp Rupert Murdoch—is actually much bigger than outsiders suspect.
Don Emmert | AFP | Getty Images
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation
Some reports are blowing off The Daily, citing its exclusivity to the iPad as a key reason for why it won’t succeed.
But inside of the upper echelons of News Corp , there is a lot of confidence.
And with confidence, comes funding. Information obtained by NetNet reveals that the project has significantly more money than the $40 million that has been reported. The real level of funding is "not even in the same stratosphere” as $40 million.
The Daily—which is not being called a “newspaper” by insiders despite several articles referring to it as a newspaper—will include what is being described as “highly visualized” and interactive content.
The Daily will use high-definition digital cameras called Red. These are the cameras used in The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington and they provide incredibly accurate and minute details. In addition, some of the visual content will be able to rotate 360 degrees and readers will be able to control the direction of the story by interacting with the visuals.
Right now, there are approximately 100 staffers working for The Daily. The staff will be headquartered on the 26th floor of the News Corp building. The 27th and 25th floors were “quarantined” to keep the project secret during its construction. Eventually the staffers for The Daily will be moved to the 9th floor and all they know about their new newsroom is, “think ‘Minority Report’”—that futuristic science fiction film directed by Steven Speilberg about a specialized police department set in the year 2054 starring Tom Cruise.
No one really knows how big this app will be, but what we do know is expect the release to be a big to-do. We’re hearing that Bono from U2 might be performing at the launch.
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