Rupert Murdoch, in a News Corp press release:
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.
While I have no idea what The Daily needed to be bringing in to be “sustainable in the long-term,” my guess is that the large overhead — coupled with News Corps’ usual greed — doomed this thing from the start.
While it certainly is a blow to the idea of a digital-only magazine (which is weird, as everyone is declaring print to be dead), I don’t think it’s the end of this type of publication. That said, this new way of publishing requires a new way of doing business, and that’s something Murdoch just doesn’t understand.