The Daily is off to a rocky start. Glitches have kept the free trial period going well beyond the original two weeks that Verizon sponsored. A story on paidcontent.org says the free trial extensions could continue for several weeks. The Daily is also having problems with slow load times.
Maybe enough will stay with it when it comes time to pay, but the glitches will have to be gone. I've been a part of launches, and no matter how well something tests there will always be glitches after you go live.
I had intended to blog about what critics were saying about a week ago. Then today this news is out there. I am sure that Mark Potts, who writes the blog The Recovering Journalist, is not surprised.
Potts wrote soon after The Daily's debut that he was not impressed. Potts spent some time with The Daily, which I haven't been able to do. (Anybody have an iPad they don't want?) He wrote that The Daily was not blazing a trail, that it was old-style journalists still trying to do old-style journalism in a digital format that he doesn't think has a chance to work. And he wasn't impressed with the content either.
I wrote in a previous post that The Daily sounded like something that might work. But after reading Potts' critique and some others, I'm not so sure.
Few can't-miss ideas work, and in the digital news space there are a lot of failed ideas that sound really good. If you want to do something that works online and makes money, copy someone. It's incredibly difficult to bring to market the next great idea. But you can find a model that works, adapt it to your product and make it profitable.
A former page designer colleague used to say "talent creates, genius steals." Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun. The Daily is trying to build the latest, greatest news business model. What they probably need to do is steal some ideas from other things that work. Otherwise, The Daily could have a short shelf life.
Jeff:
ReplyDeleteI am on my 3rd free week and I was initially very pleased with the 360 photos and nice new touches.
But, I have found the load times to be way too long...I do have a 20k download speed so that is not the issue. The product seems to be a nice concept but not ready for the big time that it was made out to be. I am not ready to pay for it. Rich Burkhart
Rich
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I have a feeling that your story is pretty representative.
Jeff:
ReplyDeleteI still would like to see this work. What do you think it would take?
Chris Pincket '93.
See, it might not work initially for any number of reasons. but I wonder if the idea itself might still be a significant step forward regardless of how it turns out in the short term. and as someone said to me the other day, if anyone can adapt and pull it off, it's probably Rupert Murdoch.
ReplyDeleteWish I had an iPad so I could check out the app!
ReplyDeleteYes, being willing to adapt to whatever the problems are and to what the market wants are the key. I surely don't know the specifics, but if Murdoch and his bunch isn't trying to figure that out they are doomed. The most difficult thing in journalism (at least one of the most difficult things) is to truly know your audience. The problem will be that once they lose people, they will probably never get them back no matter what changes they make and tout.
ReplyDelete