Ben Harvell is a freelance writer and former editor of iCreate magazine. He now writes for a wide range of international technology magazines and websites including Macworld and Mac Format. He has written several books on consumer technology and blogs at benharvell.com. Ben covered the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and has been closely associated with the device and it’s rivals ever since. He has commissioned his own apps and reviews App Store content on a regular basis. He’s also rather obsessed with Twitter.
So, The Daily has finally arrived. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from this Rupert Murdoch-backed “revolution” in publishing but I guess I have to admit to being caught up in the hype.
It had all the hallmarks of marketing from 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino during the buildup to the first tablet-only newspaper. Web rumours, leaks, delays and speculation right up to the point the app was unveiled. The announcement, in fact, turned out to be a very un-Apple affair that seemed more like a bunch of rich kids showing a school project to their grandfather than it did the launch of something groundbreaking.
Initially, I liked some of the features offered by The Daily as well as the concept of a completely iPad-focused publication that isn’t simply the panini version of an existing newspaper squashed into the iPad form. I also liked the way in which The Daily tried to be more social than other iPad newspapers and magazines with sharing features enabled rather than a gated community. The true litmus test, however, and this goes for all apps, is whether or not people will be willing to actually pay for the product. My initial reviews of The Daily were mixed yet generally positive, but now I’m receiving messages informing me that I’ll soon have to pay $.99 per week, I’m finding all sorts of flaws.
Let’s get the superficial elements out of the way first. I hate the logo. I understand The Daily wants to be different to a broadsheet newspaper and therefore has avoided script fonts and fancy lettering, however this is the most bland logo I’ve seen in a long time. I hate the stupid noise the app makes when it launches. It doesn’t need to be there, and I seriously wonder why developers (usually those working on high-profile projects like this) decide to include such pointless, irritating and ultimately space-wasting elements in their apps. Who made that call? There’s probably a “VP of sonic production” working on The Daily who simply beams each time he hears that sound.
Then there’s the application itself that, as an iPad newspaper, is perfectly acceptable. It has all the right elements, the right balance of interactive and editorial features, topical (although shallow) stories and a fairly simple interface. One day, however, I hope that all newspapers and magazines on the iPad will conform to a standard browsing method so we don’t have to learn each new app or put up with cringe-worthy video intros and patronizing diagrams that currently prevail across the genre.
The real problem I have with The Daily, however, is that I don’t think anyone bar my grandparents (should they ever buy an iPad) want to receive digital news this way. As much as The Daily hopes to be a next generation news platform, it’s still basically the same old format with nicer pictures and a bigger budget. After none of the much-rumoured news applications appeared within the first few months of the iPad launch, myself and others like me found ways to view the news we are interested in from a number of sources. Whether it be through aggregators like Flipboard and Pulse or services like Read It Later and Instapaper, the simple picking and choosing of news stories rather than being force-fed content is the new way to stay informed. No amount of 360° photography or tweets from celebrities is going to change that. Especially not, in the age of the mobile ad, if people must also pay for the privilege.