AllThingsD » Reuters

Reports: Apple Could Face Federal E-Book Suit Today

Peter Kafka — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:32:59 +0000

The Department of Justice may file a suit against Apple today over e-book price-fixing complaints, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg. The DOJ has been probing antitrust complaints regarding Apple’s 2010 pacts with book publishers; several of the biggest publishers are preparing to settle those charges by “tearing up” those deals, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Happy Sixth Birthday, Twitter

Bo Kim — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:01:54 +0000

Twitter’s still in its honeymoon period, but that won’t last forever. At some point, it’s going to be less of a wunderkammer, and more of a regrettable necessity.

– Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon, in an article entitled “Why Twitter will get more annoying”

Here's What a Netflix-Cable Deal Could Look Like: The One That Netflix Just Announced With Apple

Peter Kafka — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:43:16 +0000

The new Apple TV is a fairly incremental technical upgrade. But the refresh also includes at least one interesting business deal: Apple will let users sign up for Netflix directly from the device, and will let them pay for the monthly streaming service using their iTunes account.

That’s the first time Netflix has handed off its customer billing to a third party. And it’s a significant step for Reed Hastings and company.

For starters, it will make it that much easier for Netflix to sign up more users. But it also sets up a model for a possible Netflix-cable provider deal.

Reuters reported yesterday that Hastings was looking to bundle his service with pay-TV operators, and to deliver movies and TV shows through cable providers’ set-top boxes. But people familiar with his thinking tell me the Apple TV model is a more plausible tie-up: Netflix would be happy to let cable operators take care of billing, but wants to send its video over the Web, just like it always has.

That assumes that the cable guys buy the argument Hastings has been making for some time — that his service isn’t for cord-cutters, but for people who like watching lots of video, and don’t mind paying another $8 for what is essentially another cable channel.

How much would Netflix be willing to pay to let a third party market its service and take on billing duties as well? I don’t know.

But I have a hunch that that it’s less than the 30 percent per month that Apple has previously required from subscription services that want to let users sign up via its iOS devices.

One hint: Though you’ll now be able to sign up for Netflix using Apple TV, you still won’t be able to do that with Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPods. Those devices will still require you to sign up somewhere else before you can stream video on their screens.

Worth noting that Netflix isn’t the only outside service handing over billing to Apple. Major League Baseball is doing the same thing with its app, and presumably we’ll see more down the line. Curious to see if Hulu Plus joins in.

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Zynga Makes Big Claims With IPO Only a Week Away

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:03:29 +0000

Zynga is making some pretty big promises during its roadshow as it attempts to woo investors ahead of next week’s public offering.

The San Francisco social games company is looking to raise as much as $1.15 billion, which would make it the largest IPO from a U.S. Internet company since Google raised $1.7 billion in 2004.

Shares will likely be sold on Thursday, with the company trading under the ticker ZNGA for the first time on Friday. In the meantime, the company is trying to jockey for the best price and the most shares sold.

At a luncheon yesterday with potential investors, CEO Mark Pincus made one of his boldest predictions yet when it comes to how well its games will monetize.

Currently, Zynga has about 227 million monthly active users who play games for free on Facebook, such as FarmVille, CityVille, Zynga Poker and Mafia Wars. But only a small fraction — around 3 percent — pay for additional features, such as decorative items for a farm or new clothes for an avatar.

“We could see that doubling,” said Pincus, according to Reuters.

Doubling? That’s sure to whet investors’ appetites.

But it’s hard to know how the company will accomplish that.

To be sure, Zynga is about to enter one of its biggest growth periods yet and anticipates launching several new games over the next few months.

On one level, more games will likely translate to more players. But will it translate to more players willing to pay?

That seems like a leap of faith.

However, based on documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, we have gleaned that some of Zynga’s growth prospects are guaranteed thanks to the company’s close – albeit complicated – relationship with Facebook.

As one of the conditions of its partnerships, Facebook is obligated to help Zynga meet certain growth targets. In return, Zynga has committed to offering Facebook a number of exclusive game titles.

The specific details of the relationship were redacted in the document, so it’s not clear how aggressive those growth targets are over the five-year life of the contract.

Zynga also has close ties with Google, which has recently launched its own games network. Zynga has already launched several titles there, including CityVille. Following the offering, Google will own 3.8 percent of the company.

Also during yesterday’s lunch, Zynga’s executives were grilled about player retention and churn rates and its growth prospects for mobile.

Among several responses, Pincus joked about how Alec Baldwin was recently kicked off a flight after getting caught playing Words With Friends while still at the gate.

It seemed investors were not as interested in hearing about recent negative reports that Pincus’s hard-charging personality has made it an unfavorable working environment or that some employees were asked to give up their stock options.

Plus, it’s a crowd that Pincus should be comfortable speaking in front of. This will be the second company the Wharton and Harvard Business School grad has taken public.

The company will continue to have meetings today and into next week. So far, reports indicate that the conversations are going well.

Zynga has apparently already received enough orders to cover all the shares being sold in its initial public offering, reports BusinessWeek, which talked to two people with knowledge of the situation. Zynga plans to sell 100 million shares for $8.50 to $10 apiece, which would value the company at as much as $7 billion.

Verizon Won't Talk About Its Talks to Build a Netflix-Style Service. But It Is Definitely Talking.

Peter Kafka — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:46:59 +0000

Those stories about Verizon launching its own Netflix-style video service? Ignore them, says Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. Those are “all just speculation by people who like to write blogs.”

So congrats to Reuters’ Yinka Adegoke and Sinead Carew, along with The Wall Street Journal’s Sam Schechner, Anton Troianovski and Spencer Ante on their new gigs! If you guys ever want to get together and trade tips (Google Analytics or Chartbeat? etc.) I’m totally down for a Meetup. It would be good to get out of my pajamas …

Meanwhile, this blogger can also report that Verizon has been talking to programmers about a Netflix-style video service. There don’t appear to be any signed deals, and there may not be anything formal on the table yet, so don’t expect to see anything until next spring at the earliest.

But the idea of offering packages of video programming, delivered over the Web, is a fairly straightforward one. Which is why it has also appealed to satellite TV provider Dish Networks, which has also had grown-up conversations about the idea. And to Microsoft, and Google, and Apple, whose discussions about it over the years haven’t progressed very far.

And, of course, to Hulu and Amazon, who are already doing it.

So we’re certain to see more “over the top” video from big brand names down the line. “Shame on those [Netflix] competitors for not being in the market years ago,” says a TV executive — who would be happy to sell any of them some programming when/if they do get into the market.

So if that’s the case, what does that mean for companies like Verizon, which sell traditional pay TV services right now?

Here McAdam, speaking at the UBS media/telco conference this morning, doesn’t just disagree with professional typers. He’s also butting rhetorical heads with Ivan Seidenberg, whose last job was … CEO of Verizon.

A year ago, Seidenberg told investors that “over the top” video — stuff that comes from the Web instead of a cable subscription — was going to be a big problem for pay TV services: “Young people are pretty smart. They’re not going to pay for something they don’t need to … Over the top is going to be a pretty big issue for cable.”

Nah, says the new guy, who takes the conventional line that over the top is a complement to his business, not a threat. Or at least not anytime soon. “We have a tendency to see trends like this in the industry and extrapolate it to become the majority. I think it will be many years before it is,” he said.

Still! McAdam did allow that Verizon was interested in offering stuff that sounds a whole lot like the “over the top” options that Reuters and the Journal reported about yesterday (and I am reporting this morning! From my basement!).

He acknowledged, as we reported earlier this year, that the company had kicked the tires on Hulu this summer. “We kind of looked at that,” he said. “And we’ll continue to look at alternatives.”

Netflix Down on Report of Verizon Video Streaming Plans

Tiernan Ray — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:45:10 +0000

Shares of Netflix are down are down $1.58, or 2 percent, at $68.54, and traded as low as $66.81, in an otherwise rising market, perhaps in part because Verizon Communications is planning to offer its own streaming video service on the Internet, according to a report by Reuters’s Yinka Adegoke and Sinead Carew this afternoon, citing multiple anonymous sources.

The service will have limited programming, will operate outside of where Verizon offers its FIOS video service, and is being put together in conjunction with television operators, the authors report.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

NewsCred Raises $4 Million for Its Web-Based Newswire

Peter Kafka — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:00:11 +0000

Problem: You own a Web site and would like to fill it up with some nice-looking newsy content, but you don’t want to pay people like me to make it. NewsCred wants to provide the answer: It syndicates news stories from outlets like the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times and Forbes, and places them on sites around the world.

The New York-based start-up has been at this in various incarnations since 2009, but CEO Shafqat Islam says he’s getting some traction, and is able to charge Web publishers $3,000 to $5,000 a month per “vertical” for access to his (borrowed) content. He says he’ll do $1 million in revenue this year; last month, Islam raised a $4 million Series A round led by First Mark, along with Lerer Ventures, AOL Ventures and Shari Redstone’s Advancit Capital.

Content syndicators aren’t a new idea, by any means, and NewsCred’s basic pitch sounds quite similar to Mochilla, which has raised a pile of money. Several folks are trying versions of this in video, including AOL’s 5min and U.K.-based Perform Group’s ePlayer. And Demand Media has tried putting its super-low-cost freelancers to work for publishers including USA Today.

NewsCred’s basic pitch seems to be that it has a better selection of blue-chip content makers, all of which are getting guaranteed payments for their stuff. Islam pitches his product as a disruptor out to take on the likes of the Associated Press, but he also syndicates content from Reuters and Bloomberg, also giant newswires. So presumably they don’t feel threatened quite yet.

Here’s an interview I conducted with Islam earlier this week, featuring a cameo from Pat the Contractor (NewsCred is in the process of moving into its own place, after graduating from start-up launcher General Assembly).

[ See post to watch video ]

(Side note: To get a sense of how difficult it is to hammer out some of these content deals, or just get a foot in the door, see this email exchange between Islam and an executive at Dow Jones, which, like this Web site, is owned by News Corp.)

Of Course Apple Is Planning a Cheaper iPhone 4 (Updated)

John Paczkowski — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:59:22 +0000

When Apple’s next-generation iPhone finally arrives at market, it may be accompanied by a more inexpensive version of its predecessor.

Reuters claims Apple’s manufacturing partners are ramping up production of a cheaper version of the iPhone 4. The device is said to have an eight gigabyte flash drive and is expected to hit the market this fall; Reuters says September.

Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone. Apple typically drops the storage on older model iPhones to 8 GB as it prepares to release a new version of the handset.

“As a matter of practice, Apple drops their old model iPhones down to the $99 price range when new models launch and extends the life of the older product by a year or more,” Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told AllThingsD. “We saw this with the 3GS and the 3G, and the iPhone 4 will see the same thing in the weeks to come. As the price of the iPhone components in older models drops, Apple can take the capacity of the older model down to 8 GB and sell the handset to carriers at a discounted price, putting it into the hands of more consumers.”

Particularly those in emerging markets. As we’ve noted before, a lower-tier version of the iPhone could be a real bonanza for the company in regions it views as prime targets for a more affordable iPhone.

“[A more affordable iPhone would allow] Apple and carriers to ease back on the device and service pricing and extend Apple’s reach into new and lower consumer segments with only minimal cannibalization to the iPhone’s high-end position,” Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron wrote earlier this year. “Clearly, there is a large untapped market available to Apple once it lowers price, and it makes sense to approach these markets in the same way that the iPod found its way to lower price tiers.”

Exclusive: Skype Employees Were Briefed in Plain English -- The Internal Equity Incentive Plan Deck

Kara Swisher — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:14:21 +0000

I have largely stayed away from opining about the he-said-he-said over what or what not Skype employees were told about the treatment of their stock options.

Some employees are alleging they were duped via complicated legalese and double-talk in employment contracts about how their shares would be handled upon termination or voluntary departure from the Internet telephony giant.

That matters, since Skype was recently sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion, well above previous valuations. Thus, those who were, as a Skype PR person said, not in it to win it, um, lost.

Dramatic stuff, to be sure. But, even with all the fervor around the employment contract issue, the handwringing about what it means for compensation issues in Silicon Valley and a whole big dose of how private equity companies (in this case, a firm that had bought Skype called Silver Lake) are evil, it’s struck me as little more than an insider read-the-legally-obtuse-contract dispute.

And, although I love Reuters’ Felix Salmon’s epic tsk-tsking posts, that’s why I like to see real documents as proof of what people knew and when.

Apparently, a lot and rather clearly from this PowerPoint that was given to employees of Skype as of December 2009 as part of its changing ownership, after Silver Lake and other investors bought it from eBay.

While it’s not proof of what employees got it — typically, it is standard HR policy to hand this stuff out to everyone — and who read it (no accounting for slaggards!), it is pretty clear on what happens upon leaving Skype, either by a firing or quitting.

On the eighth slide, as you can see above, it says, in part:

“Good Leaver”: someone who gets fired without “Cause”

* Gets the fair-market value of their currently vested options

“Bad Leaver”: someone who resigns, or is fired for “Cause”

* Skype buys back their options at the lower of fair-market value or strike price

* This provision lapses post-IPO

It seems pretty buyer-beware clear, but check it out for yourself:

Skype – Employee Presentation

IPhone 5 Release Date Rumors May Persist Until Fall

John Paczkowski — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:09:34 +0000

Another report to add to the pile of prognostications claiming Apple will launch the next iPhone in the fall, not the summer as it has in the past. Three unnamed sources tell Reuters iPhone 5 will hit manufacturing in July or August and ship in September.

Not the first time we’ve heard such a thing and I’m sure it won’t be the last. As I’ve reported here before, Apple doesn’t plan to unveil a new iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference. And increasingly, I’m hearing the company may use its annual September media event to launch the device instead.

Video: BoomTown Talks AOL-HuffPo as Web's Condé Nast on CNN

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:15:11 +0000

Here is a video of a segment I did on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” cable television program yesterday morning–in the wee hours in San Francisco, hence the bags under my eyes–about last week’s $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post by AOL.

(Pictured here is AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and HuffPo flagship Arianna Huffington during my video interview with them last week, which is also embedded below.)

“Someone has to be the Condé Nast of the Internet,” I noted in answer to a question from host Howard Kurtz, since it has not been that famous magazine company which has become the big publishing dog online.

(By the way, Kurtz recently decamped to the Daily Beast from his famous columnist gig at the Washington Post, so he obvi gets the meme going on here.)

Here’s the video, which includes Reuters’ financial blogger Felix Salmon and Mark Potts, a former Washington Post reporter and now Internet strategy consultant:

[ See post to watch video ]

Google, EU Reportedly in Antitrust Settlement Talks

Voices — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:32:53 +0000

Google has begun preliminary talks with European Union regulators in an effort to resolve an antitrust investigation that began in November, according to a source cited by Reuters today. The probe was launched after competitors charged that Google was using its dominant position in search to favor its own services in its result rankings.

Rupert Murdoch Introduces the Daily, His iPad Newspaper

Peter Kafka — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:40:14 +0000

It’s time, finally, for News Corp. to show off the Daily, the iPad newspaper it has been building for some six months.

This debut was supposed to happen a few weeks ago in San Francisco, with Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs sharing stage time. Instead, Murdoch will show off his new publication at the Guggenheim in New York, with Apple content boss Eddy Cue stepping in for Jobs.

We’ve got a very good idea of what to expect: A newspaper that’s both old-fashioned and cutting-edge, which will sell for 99 cents a week or $40 a year. And the best way to experience the new publication will be on an iPad, not at a museum.

Still, it will be interesting to hear News Corp. pitch this one in real time, and to see how it leverages all of its resources and a very rare Apple endorsement. (This Web site, we should note, is owned by News Corp. as well.)

10:40 am: Greetings! So excited to be in the Guggenheim that I’m starting this one a few minutes early.

10:44 am: And here’s Jon Miller, who has been shepherding this thing at News Corp. Here’s some fresh scoop! The Daily will be be live onstage for the demo, he says, but won’t appear at the app store until noon.

[Note: The Daily can be found here at the Apple App Store]

10:47 am: Miller is working the room very well; now chatting up Reuters’ Ken Li.

10:48 And Steve Rubenstein, who has been handling PR for the Daily launch. He semi-taunts me by noting that there were tasty canapés at Rupert Murdoch’s private party Tuesday night.

10:49 am: If you’d simply like to watch a livestream of the event, minus my commentary, head to thedaily.com at 11 ET.

10:50 am: That sound you hear is the rustle of departing page views.

10:51 am: Cunning of the News Corp./Rubenstein/event-planning crew to split up the press by species. Gives us something to talk about.

10:52 am: BREAKING NEWS! Jon Miller says Wi-Fi here at the Guggenheim has been working “intermittently.”

10:52 am: WAAAAAAY More interesting is that Engadget’s Joanna Stern being hassled for daring to take out a camera during a press conference. She is being moved three seats back. Where that’s OK, apparently.

10:56 am: Pre-launch music, btw: Some kinda samba thing going on. Festive and, dare I say, a smidge bit sexy. Rowr!

10:58 am: Slightly curious is that registration staff told media that they’ll have “review units” available after presser. But everyone in media has an iPad, right? It’s required, no?

Perhaps the notion is that the presser will end before noon, and the Daily won’t be available until then, so if you want to get hands-on in the meantime, that’s the way to go. Which would be smart!

On the other hand, if they’re simply handing out free “review” units to the press, well, that’s kinda smart too. Because the press likes free stuff.

11:03 am: Our crack tech guy Adam Tow tells me TheDaily.com site is now saying that the app will be available at noon ET. I can’t see that on my screen, but I’ll take his word for it.

Especially because that’s what Jon Miller said a few minutes ago.

11:05 am: Given News Corp. pub WSJ’s focus on privacy, and Apple’s, interesting to review the Daily’s:

When you use the Services, we may collect certain non-personally identifiable information about that use. For example, in order to permit your connection to the Services via the Internet, our servers receive and record information about your computer and browser, including potentially your IP address, browser type, and other software or hardware information. If you access the Services from a mobile or other device, we may also collect transactional information such as a unique device identifier assigned to that device (“UDID”), your geolocation, or other transactional information for the device in order to serve content to it. We also may use cookies and other tracking technologies (including browser cookies, pixels, beacons, and Adobe Flash technology including cookies), which are comprised of small bits of data that often include an anonymous unique identifier. Websites send this data to your browser when you first request a web page and then store the data on your computer so the web site can access information when you make subsequent requests for pages from that site. We may use these technologies to collect and store information about your use of the Services, such as pages you have visited, search queries you have run, and advertisements you have seen.

11:06 am: And we’re live. Here’s Rupert Murdoch, iPad in hand.

“Good morning. I’m Rupert Murdoch.”

Thanks for the “amazing Steve Jobs,” a man who has “single-handedly changed the world” of technology and media.

“Steve has been a champion of the Daily from day 1.”

“New times demand new journalism.” [hrm]

Trying to take best of traditional journalism, including “shoe-leather reporting” editing, “a skeptical eye” [hrm!] and combine them with awesome tech.

“”Simply put, the iPad demands that we completely re-imagine our craft”

Shooting for audience that is sophisticated and reads a lot, but not print.

We have that, but it’s niche. No “true news discovery.” The magic of newspapers “and great blog” lies in “serendipity.”
True!

Similarly, we must make the business of news-gathering viable again.

Goal is to be indispensable source for news and entertainment. “A robust new voice.”

Shout-outs to Jesse Angelo and Greg Clayman, who run editorial and business, respectively, for the new pub.

Daily will be 14 cents a day–99 cents a week–because no printing, delivery costs, etc.

More superlatives for the Daily, including a “sense of fun.”

Target audience is “tablet” audience–[note emphasis on tablet, not iPad].

And a shout-out to Jon Miller, too.

[Unless I misheard and it was News Corp. CTO John McKinley.]

“We believe the Daily will be the model for how stories are told and how they’re consumed.”

And another shout-out to “all our friends at Apple”

Okay. Here are Miller, Angelo, Clayman.

11:13 am: Miller starting off. Not a demo–this is live production.

Trying to figure out how to produce new news for tablet era. “We think we’ve developed that.”

Angelo shows off home screen of the Daily, with Egypt as main headline. Applause.

Have been doing live production for about six weeks.

11:14 am: They have a reporter on the ground in Cairo right now. Josh Hirsch [sp?].

Lots of big pictures, video embedded in text.

And here’s one of the 360-degree photos. Which look cool!

Can put audio behind them, etc.

HD video–here’s a clip about prisoners making toys in Angola prison. Note the bluesy background music. ’Cause it’s about a prison, duh.

11:16 am: Back to Miller. Have rethought navigation.

11:17 am: Back to Angelo, showing off swipey carousel. Sorta silly to describe this to you in a liveblog, but there’s a “play” function and a “shuffle function,” and a video anchor who will discuss the main stories of the day.

11:18 am: Back to MIller. “The Daily is not an island” can share to Facebook, Twitter, email.

11:18 am: Angelo: We can also pull HTML5 pages into device. Can also link out. [Subtext--we are TOTALLY NOT ignoring the Web, you dummies. We're not idiots.]

Bringing Twitter feeds directly into app. So you can see what Lily Allen (used to be semi-famous a couple of years ago) has to say about something.

11:19 am: Miller: We have apps and games section, with a link directly to Apple Store.

And we have an awesome sports section [sounds familiar!].

11:20 am: Angelo: Yes, check out our awesome sports section. Troy Polamalu talking about Clay Matthews’s hair.

“For sports fans, we really think this is the showstopper”–customizable sports filter by team/sport, brings in scores, tweets, etc.

11:21 am: Miller: Publishing once a day, with updates throughout the day “as the news warrants.”

Verizon sponsoring first two weeks of free subscriptions.

11:22 am: The art in this liveblog, by the way, is coming directly from livestream. Nice job, Adam Tow.

11:22 am: Here’s Eddy Cue. Never seen him before. A very, very, very big deal in media circles.

Running through iPad, iOs success. iPad customers are huge news eaters. 200 million news apps downloaded so far.

I’ve been using the Daily for the last two weeks. “It’s amazing.” Amazing that it’s done every single day. More superlatives, etc.

Basically, a repeat of what Miller et al just said.

Okay. Here are the new details on push subscriptions. First time Apple has used this tech. 99 cents a day, $40 a year. [ahem].

11:26 am: And now, oddly, press conference comes to a halt for a photo opp.

11:26 am: Waiting for them to set up chairs for Q&A.

Questions and Answers

How will back issues be handled? Where will old copies be stored?

Angelo: Best thing to do is to save articles you care about. And it will also be archived on the Web. Internal archiving not there for 1.0.

Q: When will other pubs start using subscription option?

Announcement “very soon for other news publications.”

Q: How will you measure impressions, etc. for advertising?

Miller: Will have tech built into app for that. I should have mentioned during presentation that we love advertisers.

Q: For Rupe: How will you measure success?

A: We want to sell millions. But keep costs low. We have spent $30 million so far, “all of which has been written off in figures we’ll announce today.” But overall costs $500,000 a week going forward.

Q: Another question about subscriptions.

A: A non-answer from Cue.

Q: Who/what does Daily compete with? And how will other News Corp. properties be integrated?

A: Miller: Gotta compete with everything. “you’re competing with Angry Birds at some level.” [Hey that's my line!]

Murdoch: In NY, for example, we already have multiple outlets competing with each other. This is another.

Q: What about breaking news? How will that work?

A: Angelo talking up twitter feeds, sports scores, but “we can drop in a new page if we want to, and we will.” BUT! As a conusmer, I don’t like Web sites that change constantly. It’s not a great experience. [THAT IS: This is a newspaper, not a Web site.]

Q: What’s the political tone of this thing. Centrist, right?

A: Murdoch: “The editorial position will be in the hands of the editor.” Cue Angelo, who sorta hedges. On op-ed page, “We’re patriotic.”

Q: Someone wants to know if Rupert is really into this. Also, will there be an Australian version?

Murdoch. Duh.

(An Australian version “always a possibility.”)

Q: Why do this with the Daily instead of existing brands. Also, what’s up with your phone hacking newspapers in the U.K.?

A: Murdoch: Existing tablet apps are what got me excited about launching a new one. No comment on “the other matter.”

Q: You’ll be working with other tablets besides iPad, right?

A: Murdoch. Yes. And “we’ve been quite honest with Apple about that.” We’ll defnintely be on all platforms. But Apple will be the dominant one this year, in my opinion.

[Sorry, missed a Q. Seems to be about what apps Murdoch likes.]

Q: More about the editorial voice, please.

A: Angelo: Thinking it through. We know that people spend a lot of time with these apps–35 minutes, 40 minutes. “It’s unbelievable.” So how do you create content rich enough to keep people there?

Q: What did Steve Jobs say about this in the last couple of days?

A: Murdoch: “He did call me last week” and told me app was “really terrific. He was extremely flattering.”

Q: How will people find this stuff, since it’s not on the Web?

A: Cue: We’ve downloaded 10 billion apps. People can find this stuff.

Miller: We feel really good about this. We didn’t want to make compromises.

Q: I ask about what’s available on the Web.

A: Some of it will be mirrored on the Web, when it can be done technically. [Sorry, hard to type and write.]

[Sorry, now even more confused about what's available on the Web and what isn't. Going to have to follow up with the gang later.]

[Where's Greg Clayman, by the way?]

11:47 am: Q: How do you balance a subscription model with a large audience that advertisers want?

Murdoch: “They’d pay a much lower rate per thousand if it was free. They realize it’s something that people want.” And we can tell them more about who sees it. “It’s not just scattered out there….We’ll draw a better class of advertiser, and a better rate.”

11:48 am: Q: What’s the split between ad and subscription revenue?

Miller: Subscription will be larger at start, and then eventually 50-50, “which is the magic number.”

And we’re done. Will try to follow up, may have more answers/comments here, or in a separate post. Thanks for checking in!

Here is the press release announcing the Daily:

Introducing The Daily

First National Daily News Publication Created for iPad Launches today in the Apple App Store

New York, NY, February 2, 2011 – Today Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, unveiled The Daily — the industry’s first national daily news publication created from the ground up for iPad.

“New times demand new journalism,” said Mr. Murdoch. “So we built The Daily completely from scratch — on the most innovative device to come about in my time — the iPad.”

“The magic of great newspapers — and great blogs — lies in their serendipity and surprise, and the touch of a good editor,” continued Mr. Murdoch. “We’re going to bring that magic to The Daily — to inform people, to make them think, to help themengage in the great issues of the day. And as we continue to improve and evolve, we are going to use the best in new technology to push the boundaries of reporting.”

The Daily’s unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds provides its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important — but also the best format to deliver these stories to their readers.

“News Corp. is redefining the news experience with The Daily,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think it is terrific and iPad users are really going to embrace it.”

Led by Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo and Publisher Greg Clayman, The Daily is the first application made available on the App Store as a subscription — which will be billed directly to an iTunes account. And because this paperless paper requires no multi-million dollar presses or delivery trucks, it will be priced at just 99 cents a week (or $39.99 for an annual subscription).

“The Daily launches at a moment when advances in technology are changing the job of the modern editor,” says Mr. Angelo. “These advances are giving us new ways to tell stories. We intend to take advantage of all of them, and make The Daily the new voice for a new era.”

Each day The Daily will publish up to 100 pages focused on six key areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. It will offer views from across the political spectrum. They will come from across cultures and generations, across America and the world.

The Daily will feature Sudoku and crossword puzzles, localized weather reports, and a customizablesports package that captures news on the user’s favorite teams. Subscribers will also be able to leave comments on Daily stories in either written or audio form — as well as bookmark them in-app to read later.

As readers move through The Daily’s content, they will be helped by several highly intuitive navigation tools. And while The Daily lives on the iPad, most of its articles can be easily shared via Facebook, Twitter and email. The Daily will link out to the web, as well as bring the web into the app.

“In short, says Mr. Murdoch, “we believe The Daily will be the model for how stories are told and consumed in this digital age.”

The Daily has bureaus in New York and Los Angeles, as well as stringers across the country. Full companybios are available at TheDaily.com/about. Executive staff includes:

John Kilpatrick – Executive Creative Director
Steve Alperin – Managing Editor
Mike Nizza – Managing Editor, News
Richard Johnson – LA Bureau Chief
Sasha Frere-Jones – Editor, Arts & Life
Chris D’Amico – Editor, Sports
Elisabeth Eaves – Editor, Opinion
Peter Ha – Editor, Apps, Games and Technology

The Daily is also changing the way advertising is offered and consumed within a news publication. Full-page ad units are completely interactive, customizable, and offer a rich mix of branding and direct response opportunities. Launch advertisers include HBO,Macy’s, Paramount, Pepsi Max, Range Rover, Verizon, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

“With The Daily, Rupert Murdoch has given us the chance to rethink the entire experience of news delivery and consumption,” said Mr. Clayman. “The ability to actively listen to and engage with our audience means we can continually provide an experiencethat consumers value in this fast-evolving tablet space. Together with our customers, our advertising partners, and the team at The Daily, we are excited to create a new form of media.”

About The Daily
The Daily is a first-of-its-kind daily national news publication built exclusively as an application for tablet computing. It provides readers the engaging experience of a magazine combined with the immediacy of the web and the need-to-know content of a newspaper, all while elevating user experience beyond the printed word. The Daily is a subscription-based news product, published 365 days a year, at the cost of $0.99 cents a week or $39.99 a year. For more information on The Daily go to: www.thedaily.com.

Finally, here are screenshots from The Daily’s listing in the App Store:

Another Music Service You Didn't Pay for Shuts Down

Peter Kafka — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:20:34 +0000

Here’s another swing and a miss by the big music labels: “Comes With Music,” a plan to bundle music downloads with Nokia phones, is going away.

It’s not a complete failure, apparently, as Nokia will continue to support the service in six countries, including China. But it will pull the plug in 27 other countries. (It never arrived in the U.S.)

The idea, pushed in large part by Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, was that consumers would pay a premium for certain Nokia phones and get access to all-you-can-eat music.

A couple of problems, per Reuters: Consumers didn’t want it, and carriers didn’t support it.

It’s possible that the Nokia plan was sunk because of a complicated digital rights management scheme that more or less locked the music onto the phones. But it may be that people just aren’t that interested in paying for all-you-can-eat music, whether that payment is bundled into the price of the phone, or via a month-to-month subscription service.

In the U.S., there is no shortage of the latter–Rhapsody, Best Buy’s Napster, MOG, Rdio, Thumbplay, etc.–but they haven’t caught on despite years of effort. In Europe, for now, Spotify seems to be gaining some traction–people familiar with the company say it now has one million paying subscribers, up from 750,000 last fall, but that’s still not mainstream.

Subscription services were supposed to get more popular once they started playing nicely with Apple’s iPhone, but that has kicked in over the past couple of years without any noticeable bump. Now subscription advocates are pining for another boost from Google, which they imagine will end up partnering with one of the services instead of building its own.

And if Google wanted to, say, provide every Android buyer with a couple months of free subscription music, they argue, then subscriptions might finally catch on.

Could be! But I wouldn’t count on it.

The Atlantic Pretties Up With Photos

Peter Kafka — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:02:46 +0000

The rise of the Atlantic’s Web site is a good story, but that tale doesn’t have much to do with pictures, only words.

That’s supposed to change next month, when the site adds a new “In Focus” photo blog, curated by Alan Taylor. The assumption is that Taylor will be doing something very similar to the work he has been doing at the Boston Globe’s site, where his “Big Picture” site has been averaging eight million page views a month.

It’s fairly easy to describe what Taylor does: He grabs brilliant images–culled from Getty, Reuters and the Associated Press, as well as from a personal network of photographers–and assembles them on a no-frills site. But it’s impossible to describe the photos’ impact, so best to take a minute and see the work he’s been doing at Boston.com.

Back? Okay. Now, head over to check out a few of Gawker Media’s beta sites, which showcase the blog network’s upcoming emphasis on big, pretty pictures.

Again, hard to really appreciate how good this stuff can look on a lot of browser windows, but if you’ve got a big enough display–or more interestingly, if you’re looking at this stuff on a TV screen on your wall, or your iPad screen on your lap–you’ll get the full effect. Which is: This stuff doesn’t really look much like the Web–it looks like TV.

And that’s sort of the point.

Apple Shares Down Nearly Eight Percent in Frankfurt on News of Jobs's Medical Leave

John Paczkowski — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:10:16 +0000

The knee-jerk reaction to news of Steve Jobs’s medical leave of absence from Apple was as expected, though somewhat muted by the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the States. U.S. markets are closed today, so Apple’s share price here remains at $348.48, its Friday close. But it’s already taking a beating abroad. As I write this, Apple’s stock is down nearly 8 percent in Frankfurt trading.

We’ll likely see a similar drop when it begins trading on the Nasdaq again tomorrow, though the company is expected to post another quarterly blowout when it reports earnings after market close. Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell suggests investors prepare themselves for a drop similar to the one Apple shares suffered after the announcement of Jobs’s first medical leave. “We’ve been here before at the start of 2009, so it’s probably going to be similar to that,” he told Reuters. “Operationally the company coped very well last time, but there’s a certain Jobs premium in the stock, and that will be the concern.”

And while that’s understandable, that concern is overblown. As I wrote back in January 2009, for investors to sell on news like this is just silly:

“Because if Jobs were to leave Apple–willingly or otherwise–people won’t suddenly stop buying Macs. The iPod won’t suddenly go the way of the Walkman and early adopters won’t suddenly lose interest in the next-gen iPhone. Nor will the Houdini-meets-Edison magic that Jobs has brought to Apple suddenly dissipate.

“Yes, Jobs’s sensibility pervades Apple’s culture and its products, but that culture and those products are not tethered to his health or day-to-day presence at the company. And Apple’s deep executive bench is more than capable of running it–and running it well–in his absence.

“iPhones worldwide will not stop working if something should happen to Steve–although apparently there are quite a few investors who believe this is indeed the case.

“Apple will endure–with or without Steve Jobs. There will be a post-Jobs era, and whether it begins this year or 20 years from now is of little consequence.”

PREVIOUSLY

Steve Jobs Asked for Privacy–and He Deserves It This Time

Apple Shares Down Nearly 8 Percent in Frankfurt on News of Jobs’s Medical Leave

Citing Health, Steve Jobs Steps Away From Apple, Again

Apple Opposes Proposal on CEO Succession Planning

Deutsche Bank Joins the Running of the Apple Bulls

Jobs: “I’m Vertical, Back at Apple and Loving Every Day of It”

Apple Investors Are Wusses
When Steve Jobs Said “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish,” He Did Not Mean This Foolish
AAPL Sauce
Apple’s Steve Jobs: “I Have Decided to Take a Medical Leave of Absence”
The Entire Letter: Steve Jobs Explains His Health Problem: “Hormone Imbalance”–Predicts Recovery by Spring and Will Stay On as CEO
Ain’t Nobody’s Business If Jobs Is or Isn’t

For LinkedIn, First Comes IPO, Then Comes Marriage to Google?

Liz Gannes — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:57:08 +0000

It’s an open secret in Silicon Valley that LinkedIn, which is perpetually the topic of IPO speculation, is close to finally taking the public plunge.

Reuters reported this week that the company plans to go public in 2011. We’ve heard much the same and that the professional network will likely file papers within the next few months.

But, according to several sources, there are other interesting scenarios for LinkedIn in the coming year.

Top on the list is an acquisition, either right after a filing or even after a public offering.

The quick public-to-private transition is not unprecedented. And early in its history LinkedIn had been courted by bigger companies, including Dow Jones.

Of the potential acquirers these days, many point to Google as the most obvious suitor. (Microsoft would be another.)

Why would Google is interested in buying LinkedIn?

First, LinkedIn is a social service that’s clearly distinct from Facebook.

But would LinkedIn be the solution to Google’s existential questions about getting social?

That’s unclear, but the company does fit in on a thematic level with the search giant’s cloud-hosted enterprise product line. In addition, LinkedIn has created a central repository for corporate information and business people, which is already quite searchable but could be put to more uses.

How much is LinkedIn worth? Recent purchases of its stock have valued the company at more than $2 billion. Pushing the company toward the public markets would help set a price range up higher.

But things could get interesting very quickly if Google also managed to buy Twitter. Google has long eyed the real-time information network, which recently completed a big funding round that valued the company at $3.7 billion.

For under $10 billion then, Google could really shake things up in the social space.

Here’s LinkedIn’s standard comment on the IPO talk, which is no fun at all:

“We don’t comment on speculation. An IPO is one of many tactics that we could choose to pursue. We are focused on building our business and doing what is in the best long-term interest of LinkedIn members and shareholders.”

PlayBook on Track for Q1 Kick-Off

John Paczkowski — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Research in Motion’s PlayBook tablet is on schedule for launch in the first calendar quarter of 2011. That’s the word from the company itself, which was forced to issue a hasty clarification after its announcement of a 4G version of the device launching this summer raised fears that the Wi-Fi-only version might be delayed.

“The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to begin shipping in the U.S. in Q1,” RIM said in an email statement.

And there you have it.

Meanwhile, the device is garnering mixed reviews at CES. After some hands-on time with it, Engadget described the PlayBook as “blazingly fast, comfortable to hold, and intuitive to use.” Gizmodo liked it as well, talking up its hardware, responsive display and UI. “RIM’s got something here that could really stand on top of the bajillion other crappy tablets that are going to launch this year,” the site concluded. “They just have to take it the rest of the way.”

Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Robison agreed. “RIM’s PlayBook strategy [is] exceptionally compelling— pending successful execution,” he wrote in a note from CES. “The company’s ace card in tablets is sure-fire security for IT departments who loathe adding another piece of client software to enterprise networks.”

But others, like Wedge Partners analyst and RIM bear Brian Blair, were not so impressed. Though he praised the device’s sturdy build and crisp screen, he slagged its lack of native email and calendar support.

“There is not a built-in e-mail program that we saw, nor is there a calendar: arguably the two most critical features of a Blackberry,” Blair said. “Calendar and Email are only available, if the PlayBook is “tethered” to a Blackberry. Short of that, users need to use the browser for e-mail and calendar.”

And, admittedly, that does seem silly. Unless you’re a CIO. In which case, you probably prefer to push data (and remotely wipe it, if necessary) from one device instead of two, and appreciate the gesture.

Still, Blair came away with the impression that the PlayBook isn’t yet fully baked, and to be fair, it isn’t–after all, this is a pre-release device.

“We know this is an early build and that bugs are being worked through over the next couple of months, but nearly every feature we tried on our demo unit was having problems,” he concluded. “The video player froze and the games wouldn’t play. The only thing that worked was the ‘Coverflow-like’ scrolling of the different applications, which the device did with ease.”

But as Blair himself observed, a lot can change in three months. And presumably RIM is doing its damndest to ensure that it does–before Apple debuts the iPad 2, which will undoubtedly become the new standard against which all tablets are compared.

In the meantime, here are a few PlayBook promo videos RIM released in conjunction with CES.

PlayBook Sequel Will Run on Sprint 4G

John Paczkowski — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:23:54 +0000

A noteworthy development in the evolution of Research in Motion’s tablet strategy. The company today told Reuters it will release a 4G version of the PlayBook with Sprint Nextel, which it says has the most “ubiquitous 4G network at this point.” The device will arrive at market sometime this summer after its Wi-Fi-only predecessor debuts in the first quarter of this year–wise choice of scheduling, since this allows RIM to launch ahead of carrier certification and the delays that often accompany it.

No details yet on price, though RIM Co-Ceo Jim Balsillie is on record saying that the first iteration of the device, which relies on Wi-Fi or BlackBerry tethering for a data connection, will be sold for “under $500.”

And as for the recent controversy over the PlayBook’s battery life, RIM says it’s overblown and claimed the device will last at least as long as other 7-inch tablets. One could view that as an admission that the PlayBook’s battery life won’t rival the 10 hours of the iPad–a 10-inch tablet. On the other hand, it’s also an assertion that it will match Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which claims six hours of battery life. Evidently, that’s what RIM meant when it said back in December that the PlayBook would have “comparable battery life.”

UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, RIM is telling media at CES that its “target and … attainable goal” for PlayBook battery life is eight hours.

Who Wants Nortel's 4G Patents?

John Paczkowski — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 11:15:10 +0000

Nortel was once a cornerstone of the telecom industry. These days it’s little more than an estate sale, a now-bankrupt company auctioning off the valuables of a fallen titan.

Last year, Nortel sold its optical networking and carrier ethernet business to Ciena for $769 million and its wireless business to Ericsson for $1.3 billion. Soon it will sell off its patents as well, among them some thought to be essential 4G wireless technologies like Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Service Architecture Evolution (SAE).

And that IP is drawing a lot of interest from the likes of Research in Motion, Nokia, Google and Apple, none of which want to see it in the hands of a rival, particularly as 4G’s commercial availability broadens. Sources tell me all four companies are participating in the auction, and Reuters reports that final bids are due in a matter of weeks. Said one source, “Whoever buys these patents is buying a hell of an advantage.”

Reached for comment, Apple and RIM declined. Google and Nokia did not respond.

Look at All the Companies Who Aren't Buying a Piece of Skype

Peter Kafka — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:30:51 +0000

That Skype IPO is still on, but has been pushed back to 2011, people who know about such things tell Reuters. That news won’t quiet murmurs that Skype’s current owners intend to sell off the whole thing to a single buyer. But for the record, off-the-record sources say that just about everyone has talked to Skype about a “pre-IPO stake or investment” but passed because of price and/or other reasons. A partial list of non-investors, per Reuters: Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Verizon, AT&T, Cisco and Comcast.

Report: Brightcove Targets IPO for Next Year

Voices — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:02:27 +0000

Brightcove sees a bright future in online video distribution, and according to a Reuters source, the company is prepping an IPO for the first half of next year in anticipation of doing battle with the larger competitors it expects to see. The company’s new CFO, Chris Menard, was hired in large part for his experience with acquisitions and an IPO while working at Phase Forward.

Hulu Still Beating the IPO Drum

Peter Kafka — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:33:32 +0000

Could Hulu really go public? Absolutely! That’s the line Hulu has been putting out for months now, and Reuters has an update: The news service says the video site is contemplating raising up to $300 million, at a $2 billion valuation, via a 2011 IPO.

If that’s the case, we could see a prospectus filed by the end of 2010, with the help of Morgan Stanley.

Except! It may not happen at all, Reuters acknowledges: An IPO “is one of several options under consideration” and “their options include attracting other media companies to contribute new programming or raising more money from existing partners.”

So maybe, maybe not.

Here’s what we do know:

Hulu needs more money to help secure more content so it can keep competing against Netflix (NFLX), Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL), among others.
At some point, Hulu needs to be able to offer liquidity to its early employees.
Convincing public investors that Hulu’s three broadcast owners — Disney’s (DIS) ABC, News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox and GE’s (GE) NBC (soon to be Comcast’s NBC)–is theoretically possible. Because they have an obvious incentive to make it work. But all three companies continue to send signals that indicate they have mixed feelings about the JV. Which will make an IPO awfully tricky.

Big money + conflict makes for good drama, no? If they put it on the air, I’d watch.

Meanwhile, here’s a clip from “The Office,” which I haven’t been able to see this season but plan to watch on Hulu sooner than later. Not coincidentally, this kind of catch-up viewing is the service’s strong suit:

Google Acquisitions “Paying Off Huge”–Except for the Ones That Aren’t

John Paczkowski — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:00:35 +0000

Say what you will about Google’s acquisition strategy, the company has made some wise wagers over the past few years. Sure, its M&A department has thrown away a fair bit of money on some regrettable investments, but it’s pulled off some killer deals as well. And those are “paying off huge,” says VP of Corporate Development David Lawee.

“How much do you think we would sell Android for today?” Lawee recently asked Reuters. “I would argue it would be in the billions and billions of dollars, it’s worth a lot of money. The same of YouTube.”

Of course those are just two acquisitions out of the 80 or so that Google’s made since 2001. Which is not to say that there isn’t another Android or YouTube on that list, just that “paying off huge” isn’t the way one would describe Google’s purchase of, say, Jaiku or DodgeBall or the five percent equity stake it took in AOL (AOL).

But obviously the threat of a clunker investment or two isn’t going to temper Google’s aggressive acquisition strategy. Back in January, CEO Eric Schmidt predicted the company would make one acquisition a month. With a little over three months left in the year, Google (GOOG) has made 23, nearly double Schmidt’s forecast.

Shooting from Carol Bartz's Hip: Apple's iAds Are Just Awful, Which Is Why Yahoo Buys Them!

Kara Swisher — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:04:13 +0000

If you’re going to trash the competition in the online advertising business in a widely quoted press interview, it’s probably a good idea to check if someone on your staff was, you know, buying up the very product you dissed.

That’s precisely the case with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, whose shoot-from-her-hip stylings in a wide-ranging chat with Reuters, published earlier this week, took aim at–among many others–Apple and its mobile iAds product.

“That’s going to fall apart for them,” she said to Reuters, apparently referring to reports that the perfection-obsessed tech giant would involve itself in the creative part of ads on its service. “Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads.”

At an Apple event in April, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was certainly insisting on beauty and usefulness, as well as on deep interactivity within the app itself, unlike other mobile ads that take a user from the app to a Web site.

It’s definitely a clear strategic direction by Apple, exerting more control as they do with its App Store, and many are not going to like it.

Thus, Bartz, whose company has been lagging in the mobile-ad arena behind both Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), took the obvious shot.

Except, as you can see below, Yahoo (YHOO) bought one of many iAds last week within the Pandora music app, which went live this week, touting its Sportacular iPhone app.

What adds a level of irony here is that Bartz, in another interview, in The Wall Street Journal, this week, continued to compare Yahoo to Apple and herself to Jobs, when insisting investors be patient with the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s continued lackluster performance.

According to the Journal:

“Apple’s stock-market capitalization was ‘dead a– flat’ for a number of years after Mr. Jobs returned in 1997, Ms. Bartz said in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday. ‘You don’t come in and do fairy dust. You upgrade technology, you see what drives engagement,’ she said.”

Bartz has used this comparison a lot over the last year–although I am not sure it is the best idea unless she is certain there is a golden iPod-like innovation coming out in the end for Yahoo.

The iHoo? I think not.

BoomTown has a call into Yahoo PR, on whose last nerve I am working this week, for an explanation.

And here is the lovely iAd Yahoo bought: