Rupert Murdoch has reportedly been working with a collaborator on his yet to be launched digital newspaper the Daily: Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. The Guardian's Edward Helmore writes:
Rupert Murdoch, head of the media giant News Corp, and Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, are preparing to unveil a new digital “newspaper” called the Daily at the end of this month, according to reports in the US media.
The collaboration, which has been secretly under development in New York for several months, promises to be the world's first “newspaper” designed exclusively for new tablet-style computers such as Apple's iPad, with a launch planned for early next year.
[...]
Apple has been expected to announce a subscription plan for newspapers based on the model of its iTunes music download service, but some publishers have been unwilling to let Apple in as an intermediary or let it control pricing the way iTunes has done in the music business.
“Obviously, Steve Jobs sees this as a significant revenue stream for Apple in the future,” Roger Fidler, head of digital publishing at the Donald W Reynolds Journalism Institute, told the San Jose Mercury News recently.
And with Apple expected to dominate the tablet market until compelling competitors are introduced, Murdoch may have no choice but to ride with Jobs. According to Women's Wear Daily, Jobs is “a major fan” of the newsprint patriarch: “When the project is announced, don't be surprised if you see Steve Jobs onstage with Rupert Murdoch, welcoming the Daily to the app world.”
Interestingly, while Murdoch's News Corp contributed $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2010 to help elect Republicans and defeat Democrats, Jobs' Apple dropped its membership in the organization because of its position on climate change.
Much of Murdoch's media empire -- from Fox News to the New York Post, from Fox Business to the Wall Street Journal -- sing the Chamber's tune when it comes to climate science denial despite the media mogul's protestations that the issue “poses clear, catastrophic threats.”
So, when Murdoch's new Jobs' backed digital newspaper hits iPhones, iPods and iPads early next year it shouldn't surprise anyone if it takes a hard turn to the right on any number of issues.
Heck, even if Murdoch and Jobs' Daily is a smashing success and source of purely objective journalism it is worth noting that it will help the bottom line of News Corp, propping up Fox News and any number of right-wing Murdoch media properties that are hostile not just to climate science but immigrants, LGBT people, Muslims and a good number of progressives toting around Apple products as well.
You can contact Apple with your thoughts here or call (408) 974-2042. You can even email Steve Jobs directly (he's been known to reply from time to time. If you hear back from Jobs, be sure to let us know.)
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