From the press release by media research firm knowDigital:
To attract a large number of users and generate substantial subscription revenue, The Daily – the news-based application released by News Corporation in February exclusively for Apple’s iPad™ platform – will need to overcome a few obstacles with iPad owners who consume news online. These obstacles include the perception among those with the greatest interest in news that The Daily’s content is lacking, that superior content is available elsewhere online for free and the expectation that apps are purchased through one-time transactions, as opposed to the recurring subscription model The Daily employs. Identifying these obstacles comprises the major finding of research on The Daily released today by knowDigital, which funded and independently completed the study. A report detailing this and other key findings is now available for free download [PDF] from the company’s website.
“Our research finds that iPad users feel positively about what News Corporation has set out to accomplish with The Daily,” said knowDigital President Sam Milkman, who authored the report. “However, for News Corporation to convert those positive impressions into regular use and paid subscriptions from iPad users, it is going to have to address a number of concerns raised in our study.”
knowDigital completed the study, “Real iPad Users’ Early Reaction to The Daily,” with 25- to 54-year-old iPad owners who consumed electronic news multiple times each week. These consumers participated in one-on-one, 30-minute interviews with knowDigital personnel following two weeks of regular usage of The Daily.
The study revealed how consumers generally fell into two camps—one consisting of tech-savvy, heavy news users and one consisting of those who are less tech-savvy and have lower interest in gathering news content. It is with this second group that The Daily performed better, as the heavy news users in the first group—while appreciating the technical features of The Daily—dismissed much of the app’s content, expressing the nearly universal perception that more compelling and in-depth news content is available elsewhere online for no charge. iPad users in both camps were generally unwilling to commit to purchasing subscriptions to The Daily for a number of reasons, including some based on their specific perceptions of The Daily and some based on the idea of paying for an app on a recurring charge basis.
i am one of the people who falls into this range. i read The Daily every day during the free period, but once it ran out, i was fine letting it go, for all the reasons stated and then some. i really liked the form and the presentation, but i agree the content could certainly be deeper. i didn’t see it mentioned, but i also really liked their daily history page. lots of fascinating topics were covered there in the month i read it. the innovations were a nice added depth for me (360 degree photos and videos were nice, but having to rotate the ipad to see some things felt gimmicky to me). the initial load time was insanely long and frustrating. i wanted to be able to eliminate sections that don’t interest me at all (gossip, sports), and add in other sections that do (like a local source, perhaps). one other factor that was the final nail in it for me is the not-so-subtle political slant, which is not something mentioned in this study — but which i am sure probably turned off others as well.