News Corp. has reportedly placed its daily iPad publication "on probation", according to multiple reports.
The Daily, which launched in early 2011, is the first iPad application of its kind. When News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch unveiled The Daily at the Guggenheim Museum, he hailed the iPad publication as a wave of the future, a venture that the company hoped would revolutionize the business of news gathering and editing. "We're entering a remarkable age of innovation, a digital renaissance. Our aim is for The Daily to be the indispensable source for news, information and entertainment," Murdoch said.
Within months, the conversation around the publication changed. By May 2011, seven key staffers left The Daily. The Huffington Post's Michael Calderone reported that staffers suggested that the iPad application launched too soon, as the publication was experiencing more than its fair share of technical glitches.
Roughly 18 months after its launch, the app is currently on track to lose an estimated $30 million per year, the New York Times said Thursday night. According to the New York Observer, the status of the News Corp. iPad publication will be reassessed after the 2012 presidential election.
News of The Daily's precarious future comes just weeks after News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch announced that the media conglomerate would divide its broadcast properties from its publishing ventures and split into two separate companies.
The split, which Murdoch said would take about a year to complete, will include News Corp. executives reassessing some of the company's smaller ventures, like The Daily.
Though Murdoch maintained that the decision was not a reaction to the devastating phone hacking scandal that rocked his media empire, the News Corp. chief said he realized that "all the companies would be better managed and would be a lot better in every way" if split into two companies.
UPDATE: Editor-in-chief, Jesse Angelo, sent a memo to staffers telling them to ignore "the latest misinformed, untrue rumors about [The Daily's] imminent demise." He added, " As something new and different, we are an easy target for erroneous wishful thinking. But make no mistake, we will be nimble and we will compete."
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