Eideard

News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch introduced a news publication tailored specifically for Apple Inc.’s iPad, a bid to expand his media empire with a new business model for delivering content digitally.

Called the Daily, the publication will cost 99 cents a week or $39.99 a year, the companies said at a news conference in New York today. Apple unveiled a subscription payment system for the Daily and said it will soon be available for other publishers.

Murdoch, News Corp.’s chairman and chief executive officer, is betting the popularity of Apple’s iPad will draw subscribers and advertisers to the digital publication run by Jesse Angelo, the former managing editor of the News Corp.-owned New York Post. The Daily will feature general news, sports, arts and opinion sections, along with high-definition video and 360-degree photos.

“The iPad demands that we completely reimagine our craft,” Murdoch said at the event. “I’m convinced that in the tablet era there’s room for a fresh and robust new voice…”

Murdoch developed the Daily after Apple demonstrated there’s a market for tablets, which blend the functionality of a touch-screen smartphone with a notebook computer. He said News Corp. has spent $30 million to get the publication off the ground and that it will cost about $500,000 a week to operate.

The editorial position of the publication will be “in the hands of the editor,” Murdoch said.

Angelo said the target demographic is everybody. “In terms of our editorial page, at the highest level, we are patriotic,” he said. “As for specific issues, read the editorial page every day…”

Cue said a subscription system for other publishers will be announced “very soon.” With the Daily, users can pay the 99 cents a week or $39.99 a year through an iTunes account.

You can try the online paper for these first couple of weeks for free – via a subsidy from Verizon. An advertising troll awaits. In any case, the app is free.

I’ll be trying it if for no other reason than a chance to examine the tech smarts, how well the subscription model works for me. The politics will be – I imagine – stultifying at best. But, that’s me. I do agree with Steve Jobs’ analysis of such projects vs. traditional newspaper pundits. That is, they all think their product is worth more than the paper they used to print it on – and it ain’t. An inexpensive subscription model results in expanding profits. If he’s right – Rupert is out to prove it.

Rupert Murdoch, head honcho of the News Corp. and Fox News, is investing $30 million and a staff of about 100 to create and run The Daily, the first newspaper available only on the iPad and other tablet devices, scheduled to roll out early next year…

The New York Times media columnist David Carr explored the prospect: The Daily will still retain some of the more archaic aspects of a print newspaper in that it will be produced into the evening and “printed” in the morning. Updates will come, but not like we’re used to with news websites now.

Even more bizarre: “The Daily will have no inbound links from other sites, and nothing outbound either.”

For the most part, it will produce original content, although Fox Sports will provide some video. Murdoch is bringing some heavy hitters into the new project: The New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, ABC News TV producer Steve Alperin and Page Six’s Richard Johnson.

While millions of readers were lost when News Corp. moved The Times of London and The Sunday Times behind a pay wall in July, the Daily can start with a clean slate having never been free. It will have an “easy payment” format…

John Koblin at Women’s Wear Daily reported more details: The Daily will be in beta mode before the new year, around Christmas, and will cost 99 cents for a 7-day week subscription, or $4.25/month. WWD also reports that the newspaper will go beyond the iPad to other tablet devices beginning in 2011, so they won’t be missing those growing number of Android consumers…

Sounds like Rupert has actually been paying attention to Steve Jobs. His primo criticism of all the business models attempted for print media spin-offs has been what newspaper types think they can sharge for unlimited access to their product.

The latest rumor, btw, has a debut press event sked for 9 December – headlining both Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch. Will Rupert wear a black mock turtleneck? Sure as hell Jobs ain’t wearing a suit and tie.

Firemen responding to an emergency call watched a house burn down because its owners had not paid a $75 local fire subscription fee.

Gene and Paulette Cranick, of South Fulton, Tennessee, lost their home after officers were ordered by bosses not to extinguish it.

Fire fighters only arrived when the flames spread to the property of a neighbour, who had paid the fee. However, they continued to refuse to help the Cranicks.

Later the same day, the couple’s 44-year-old son was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, after allegedly punching the local fire chief.

Jeff Vowell, the city manager of South Fulton, said: “It’s a regrettable situation any time something like this happens.” Mr Vowell explained that there was no county-wide fire service and it was too expensive for the city’s officers to serve surrounding rural areas like the Cranicks’ as well.

Rural residents can gain access to the service by paying the annual fee. But “if they choose not to,” Mr Vowell said, “we can’t make them”…

About three hours after the fire began, Mr Cranick’s son Timothy allegedly arrived at the South Fulton fire station and asked for Mr Wilds, the fire chief.

It is alleged that when Mr Wilds came forward and asked if he could help, Mr Cranick punched him. “He just cold-cocked him,” Mr Crocker said…

The Cranicks are temporarily staying in a mobile home.

Whether you like it or not, this is essentially a “Republican” solution. Don’t try to work out something equitable and serviceable for all. Leave it to the beancounters.

Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google.

The concession follows claims from some media companies that the search engine is profiting from online news pages.

Under the First Click Free programme, publishers can now prevent unrestricted access to subscription websites. Users who click on more than five articles in a day may be routed to payment or registration pages…

Google users may start seeing registration pages appear when they click for a sixth time on any given day at websites of publishers using the programme.

This will only affect websites that currently charge for content.

RTFA. Lots of woolgathering and foggy crystal ball-gazing. I think all the media sites have missed the point that Google just established:

You can still press the Back Button and return to your original search page – and click on to another media site offering their own take on the same content, no charge!

The GigaOM Network has been increasing its group of tech blogs, but its newest feature is a subscription research service called GigaOM Pro.

Om Malik, the founder of GigaOM Network, plans to sell in-depth research reports on technology sectors and shorter, timely reports on companies and news in those sectors to technology and business executive. Subscriptions to the service, which GigaOM is unveiling Thursday, will cost $79 a year at first and more down the road, said Mr. Malik, in an interview. (Read Mr. Malik’s blog post on GigaOM Pro here.)

GigaOM is the latest example of a Web company that once relied solely on advertising for revenue adding new revenue streams. On Monday, I wrote about other start-ups making similar shifts.

“To assume that there is only one revenue stream, which is advertising, is kind of short-sighted in this kind of media economy,” Mr. Malik said. He does not believe in charging for content that publishers have already given readers for free, so GigaOM Pro adds additional services. Readers have asked for deeper analysis than blog posts can provide, he added…

Six GigaOM Pro analysts will cover four areas: infrastructure, mobile, green I.T. and the connected consumer. Led by Michael Wolf, who recently joined GigaOM from the analysis firm ABI, they will add more topics in coming weeks. Bloggers for GigaOM blogs will contribute content.

GigaOM Pro will also offer longer briefings, like a 23-page report on the smart energy home or a 65-page briefing on social media in the enterprise. There are quarterly and weekly wrap-ups and closer looks at certain companies in a sector, such as a report on whether Google will lead the way in mobile app innovation and an analysis of Cisco’s acquisition of Pure Digital. Analysts also publish collections of links to relevant articles from around the Web.

I suppose this wouldn’t be especially newsworthy or a topic for a diarist like me – except for the fact that it centers on Om Malik. Om is not a guru; but, his knowledge of tech business – grounded in a global understanding of many business streams – provides a heck of a lot more useful information than does anyone more likely to use the title.

I don’t give investment advice except to a couple of close kin. I think I ain’t bad at it because I got back to where I was before the recent crash – last week. But, if there is anyone in print, digital or otherwise, that I might credit with prompting a few of my picks – it would be Om.

A new online video game distribution network hopes to free players from buying game discs or the console systems and high-priced computers needed to play them.

The OnLive Game Service, expected to launch later this year — was officially announced today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco — lets subscribers choose from a on-demand catalog of new video games that can be played on Windows and Apple Macintosh computers or television sets.

Bypassing current console systems such as the Microsoft Xbox that play only games made for that specific platform, OnLive lets computers play games stored on its network of super-powerful data servers. These servers bounce game data back and forth from the player’s computer using proprietary compression technology to make the games run as if they are loaded on the computer.

To play over big-screen HDTVs, a small microconsole unit (the size of a deck of cards) that connects to home broadband networks is used. Game controllers and headsets can connect to the microconsole using USB or wireless connections…

The price of the microconsole needed for TV-based connectivity and monthly subscriptions will be announced later.

“Were providing you with the latest high-end titles, the exact same ones you would see at Target or Best Buy, in the same release windows. But what is really cool is you don’t need any high-end hardware to play them,” says OnLive founder and chief operating officer Steve Perlman. “There’s no physical media. It’s an all-digital platform. You never need to upgrade your equipment at home.”

I went looking for the most trustworthy person I can think of writing about gaming – Garnett Lee. At least at time of posting, he’s probably too busy crawling the booths at the GDC to get something in print about this. So, I’m adding a link from MTV Multiplayer – who interviewed Pearlman at the conference.

UPDATE: Wagner James Au has a good article over at GigaOm.