Just days after rumours suggested that News Corp could launch the tablet-only daily newspaper The Daily by mid-December, the Financial Times reports that the launch may have been pushed back to 2011. It’s not clear what may have triggered the delay but Financial Times sources suggest that Apple has either not yet agreed to support recurring subscriptions or simply that the functionality is not quite ready yet. With the mid-December release of iOS 4.3 in doubt, The Daily may have no choice but to delay its launch as well.
New details suggest that Steve Jobs has been quite involved in the project. He has reportedly approved the design of the Daily and even played a role in the decision to go with a completely separate editorial team rather than reusing content from current News Corp publications. It also appears that the publication would be updated up to three times a day
With a rumoured investment of about US$30 million, The Daily will apparently need a minimum of 800,000 subscribers to be economically viable.
Meanwhile, Richard Branson is also expected to shortly announce a tablet-only publication.