News Corp. is planning a national digital newspaper designed exclusively for tablet computers and smartphones. CEO Rupert Murdoch’s latest brainchild would compete with The New York Times, USA Today, and other national newspapers.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the new effort will target general readership with “short, snappy stories” that consumers can read quickly. The digital newspaper would carry the New York Post moniker under the leadership of Managing Editor Jesse Angelo. A launch date hasn’t been set, but the Times predicted a year-end debut.
“We’ll have young people reading newspapers,” Murdoch said during the company’s Aug. 4 earnings call. “It’s a real game-changer in the presentation of news.”
Finding News Niches
Murdoch has a reputation for changing the news game. The Fox TV network is a prime example. If the new digital national publication finds a niche like Fox did, it could also find similar success, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
“Murdoch is going to have to pick an audience that’s consistent with the device and then cater to that audience. Short, pithy news stories with a lot of entertainment and technology news could probably play very well if it was packaged properly,” Enderle said. “Getting that right package, though, would probably be their biggest problem, and would be for anyone trying to do this.”
As Enderle sees it, the broader the news coverage, the less likely the new publishing platform would be to succeed. He even suggested multiple targeted publications might serve the mobile-device market better than a single platform. Another alternative, he added, is a publication that alters itself to fit the specific interests of individual readers. The Internet medium allows such customization on the fly.
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