On Monday, a press release from News Corp noted that their news and entertainment division would be spitting up and there would a new CEO for the publishing division. In this separation of businesses, News Corp has proposed a plan to entirely shut down its iPad-focused newspaper, The Daily.

The Daily launched on February 11th last year, in an attempt to focus on online publishing, specifically for tablets such as the iPad. The news division will keep the name News Corps, while News Corp’s entertainment division will split and be named Fox Group. Also in the separation the editor-in-chief of the Daily,Jesse Angelo will become publisher of The New York Post. Angelo was Executive Editor at the New York Post, and will now be moving up.

As part of a digital restructuring initiative, the company will cease standalone publication of The Daily iPad app on December 15, 2012, though the brand will live on in other channels. Technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post.

From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties. Under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Col Allan and the business and digital leadership of Jesse, I know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself. I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily.

The Daily was a sort of test to try out digital publishing aimed specifically at tablets, however, it seems that it has not yet reached the level of popularity as expected by News Corp. News Corp notes that much of its staff and technology from The Daily will be moved over to The Post, which will allow the company to retain its employees and the ideas proposed with The Daily. With this split, and major transitions, it will be interesting to see what News Corp plans to do in the future as their next big project.

{Via iMore — Image Credit: TabTimes}

According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.

Per the usual caveat, the tech giant is well known for moving around their public show-and-tells, so this could certainly change at any moment.

Apart from organizing major media events Apple has participated in other events in the past such as Verizon iPhone launch and the unveiling of The Daily app for the iPad. Based on the fact that the event is New York based it is being speculated that it might be about Apple’s advertising business, iAd. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, is rumored to play an important role during the event.

The January event is expected to be a “media” only event which suggests that no new hardware will be announced. Apple has been struggling to see substantial success in mobile advertising  and with the recent news about the company hiring Adobe’s executive this event could possibly be about iAd.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter what we think. Even if we think that being able to opt out of giving our personal data to publishers, or that being able to easily manage all our subscriptions in one payment system, are great ideas. Because what matters is what the publishers think.

So far the battle lines seem to be pretty well drawn as far as Amazon, and Rhapsody (the music streaming service) are concerned. Apple is muscling in on 30% of their cash flow – and they don’t like it. Amazon has met Apple’s announcement, an announcement which would require it to route purchases from its iOS apps via Apple’s iTunes, with a stony silence. And Rhapsody have basically said that they don’t have 30% of their revenue to spare – and went so far as to say they would consider a legal rebuff to Apple’s new contract terms. Reading their financial data this week I actually believe them.

Of all the people who could have a problem with Apple’s plans, those are probably the only two who have a point. They provide all their content directly to consumers, for which they foot the shipping, or bandwidth, and they already pay royalties to content creators; writers, musicians, software companions etc. So another 30% to Apple for simply providing two already high profile businesses with a payment solution seems opportunistic from Apple. On the other hand, for smaller publishers looking for a leg up the 30 / 70 split with Apple is actually a great deal. And for consumers Apple’s price promise means an even shopping playing-field for all.

Other than that, the usual print magazines which only days ago were waxing lyrical about Apple’s iPad, have declined to herald the era of Apple’s Digital Print revolution, with digital subscriptions through the App Store. In fact they’ve barely reported on it.

Most likely all these publishers are more concerned about losing control over our personal data. And any complaints over revenue share could easily be swept aside – or used as a whipping post to drive other demands they’d rather not fight over in public. Advertising crazy Conde-Naste who pepper their web pages with so many garish adverts that even my work Mac is brought to its knees by the explosion of Flash in my browser when I visit their site, and who also brought a version of their Wired magazine to the iPad near launch, were decidedly unenthusiastic about Apple’s new deal. Unsurprisingly so.

At launch yesterday Apple had no new partners to announce with the arrival of Subscription Digital Content. Unusual for them, especially as they have reportedly been negotiating with publishers for two years. And Apple’s only partner currently in this new media adventure is Rupert Murdoch’s “The Daily”. Information on how well the Daily is going has not been forthcoming, and the free period for the digital newspaper has been extend in recent days.

So is it a bust Apple’s new Subscription Publishing model? Probably not. This period now reminds me a little bit of the initial stages of iTunes. And I am sure Apple is playing the long game. “The Daily” may well fall by the way side. But 100s of millions of tablet computers out there in the wild next year are too bigger catch for publishers, advertiser and salesmen to resist.

The publishers are simply biding their time, and hoping to give away less to Apple moving forward. It will be interesting to see who blinks first. But with Rupert Murdoch’s “The Daily” looking like a bust right now, it might be Apple who blinks first – this time.

Do you think Apple will do the same with digital print that it has done with iTunes? Or is this one going to be a tougher nut to crack for Apple? Have your say in the comments…

The trial should close on February 16th, but as TUAW is reporting it appears users are now seeing the date being pushed back to February 28th.

Now rumours are abound that the reason for the delay is that Apple just isn’t ready to ship iOS 4.3 yet, and considering developers and beta testers still haven’t been given the GM, or Golden Master, that’s entirely possible.

Of course it’s also reasonable that either Apple or News Corps realised that the launch of the daily (pun kinda intended!) newspaper has been far from smooth and is trying to help things along. The app has been plagued by stability issues, with crashes being commonplace. Even if the app does run many people are finding the experience to be below par, with the app being criticized for its news content.

Time will tell whether iOS 4.3 will arrive just in time for the trial to expire, though knowing Apple’s ability to delay iOS releases I won’t be holding my breath!

At a media conference launching ‘The Daily’ digital newspaper on Wednesday, and eagle-eyed attendee claims to have spotted a working prototype of Apple’s second-generation iPad 2, notable by its front-facing camera. A report from Reuters is backing up the claims after a source with knowledge of the device confirmed its existence, and also suggested that the finished model could boast other features.

Describing what the eyewitness spotted at the News Corp conference, the Reuters report says, “what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen.”

For a company as secretive as Apple about unreleased devices, it’s a surprise for many that a prototype iPad 2 was out in the wild at such a public event. A handful of Apple employees, including iTunes chief Eddy Cue, were at the event that saw the debut of the world’s first iPad-only newspaper, but it’s unclear from the reports whether it was a member of Apple’s staff carrying the device. Both News Corp and Apple have declined to comment.

A variety of rumors surrounding the second-generation iPad have been a popular topic as the expected launch date of the device draws closer, however, suggestions of a front-facing camera have certainly been the most popular. If the reported sighting is as genuine as it sounds, the promise of a camera-equipped Apple tablet later this year is almost guaranteed.

Without spoiling the party and ruining the hopes of many, it’s a good idea to bear in mind that features present in a prototype device don’t always make it to the finished product. Before an update to Apple’s iPod touch a couple of years ago, prototype models and parts were discovered that lead us to believe the device would launch with a camera. However, it wasn’t until the following year that a camera featured in the device.

Is the presence of a camera in Apple’s next iPad a must-have for you? Let us know you thoughts in the comments.

The list of features sounds pretty good, if News Corp can keep the quality up…

• Over 100 pages of original news, life, entertainment, opinion and sports –
• every single day of the year
• Original video content
• A selection of articles read aloud
• 360 degree photos you can explore by swiping
• Immersive photography
• Interactive charts, info-graphics and clickable ‘hot spots’
• The option to save articles to read later
• Web-friendly versions of articles you can share via Twitter, Facebook and email
• In-app comments – including audio comments
• Your local weather
• Your favorite sports teams’ scores, news and feeds
• Crossword and Sudoku puzzles

More details over at Gizmodo and at the upcoming live event we have already linked to.

What do you think? Will you be subscribing to this on your iPad? Let us know in the comments…

News Corporation is all set to officially launch ‘The Daily’ today during an event where Apple’s vice president of Internet Services, Eddy Cue will be present as a special guest. The Daily is the first national daily news publication created for the iPad.

The launch holds a lot importance as it will set the stage for subscription based apps in the App Store. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has been working closely with Apple in order to deliver an all-purpose publication developed for Apple’s iPad.

‘The Daily’ app is expected to be available in the App Store at 12 PM EST. The online publication will cost 99 cents per week ($40/year). The app will feature the ability to automatically charge the customer for recurring subscriptions of the publication.

You can stream the launch event live by visiting http://www.thedaily.com/ at 11 AM ET. Are you excited about the launch? Let us know what you think in the comments below.