Journalistically The Daily is not a bad news product and its app is facile and effective. So why hasn’t it been more
successful? The fundamental problem is that the digital-only paper has been
overshadowed by the success of legacy print newspaper brands in the market
for digitally delivered news.
The Daily has never been so brilliantly written and edited
that it could gain the significant attention and acclaim needed to overcome the
brand advantages of legacy news providers. Major newspaper—such as
The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Financial Times—have used the
strengths of their reputations and brands to make the largest inroads in
digital subscriptions. Concurrently, larger
local and regional players have also been
grabbing paid digital customers in their markets and providing additional competition to the digital startup.
The Daily has also had to compete with widespread
availability of free digital news from news providers such as BBC.com, CNN.com
and aggregators such as Yahoo! and Google. These have all been successful in attracting consumers who are less attached to print
news providers and paid services.
Those who predict the demise of legacy newspaper companies
often forget the critical importance of the credibility and trust those
companies have with news consumers and many assume that print organizations
cannot transform themselves into digital players that may become so successful
they may one day drop their print editions.
Brands are important for habitual news consumers and they
tend to be highly loyal consumers of specific news brands. The Daily has been unsuccessful in breaking
that loyalty, but more successful in creating relationships with persons who
have not been strongly bonded to legacy brands. It remains to be seen whether News Corp. will
be willing to maintain a relatively small news digital brand among its holdings,
even if it manages to move The Daily into operating profitability.
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