By Kevin McCauley
News Corp. today announced the shutdown of its much-ballyhooed The Daily iPad app on December 15, 2012 due to lack of reader interest, according to a statement from CEO Rupert Murdoch.
“The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term,” said Murdoch in a release that mostly provided details of the corporate split-up between the company’s newspaper and TV/movie assets.
The Daily technology and some staff are to be folded into the New York Post. Jesse Angelo, founding editor-in-chief of The Daily and executive editor of the Post, has been hiked to publisher of the Post, succeeding Paul Carlucci, who will focus on his duties as News America chairman.
Greg Clayman, who was publisher The Daily, is now in charge of global digital strategy, investments and distribution partnerships.
As expected, Robert Thomson, Dow Jones editor-in-chief and Wall Street Journal managing editor, will helm the new publishing group composed of the WSJ, Times of London, New York Post, Australian newspapers and HarperCollins. The new unit gets the News Corp. name when it comes to life on Jan. 1.
Gerard Baker, deputy editor-in-chief of the WSJ, assumes Thomson’s titles. He was U.S. editor and an assistant editor of the Times of London. Before joining the Times, he was Tokyo correspondent and Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times.
Murdoch will serve as chairman of the new News Corp. and chairman/CEO of newly minted Fox Group.
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