Mac Soda

Rupert Murdoch… the man, the myth, the legend. Say what you want about him, but nobody can argue that the man is powerful. Today, News Corp announced a new venture called “The Daily”, an iPad-exclusive news delivery service that has been described as the magazine, meets the newspaper, meets the internet, and “the New York Post goes to college.” After months of speculation and anticipation, the application is finally live on the app store.

I’ve had the chance to play around with it for a while now, and I must say… in my personal opinion… they delivered. I’ve been looking for a clean, modern way to have all types of news delivered to me, from the important news, to celebrity Gossip, to Opinion, to Arts & Life, to Sports, and even to Apps & Games. Until now, my go-to application has been the USA Today newspaper application, but this is now at the top of my list.

Simply put, it looks like a magazine. It informs like a newspaper. It updates like the internet. And it feels like the 21st century. And above all, the price is right. 99 cents per week, or 39 dollars per year. A far cry from the New York Times’ outrageous price hopes of 20-30 dollars per month.

The question now is, will this take off? Will people begin to gravitate away from the static-ness of traditional newspapers in favor of live updating, but still appropriately formatted, tech-based content? No matter how you look at it, the answer ultimately will be yes, whether it’s within the next 1-3 years, or the next 10-20 years.

Most importantly, once this happens, what does that mean for the future of news distribution? If one company holds a monopoly over the content being produced, like News Corp. with The Daily, then our source of news would be incredibly influenced by that companies financial influences. The flak that company gets, it’s desire for advertisements, and the interests of it’s higher powers, would completely influence the customers perceptions of truth and reality. It’s a fascinating futuristic scenario, but being able to hold this future in my hand makes it all the more exciting… and scary.

Poll time…