Steve Jobs didn’t make an appearance at the Verizon iPhone launch, instead delegating an official Cupertino presence to his number one, Tim Cook… but according to Yahoo, Jobs won’t miss the January 19th launch of Rupert Murdoch’s new iPad-Only newspaper, The Daily.
The news comes apparently from Murdoch himself, who apparently briefed some reporters on the Daily at CES, although that information is still under embargo. The Daily’s team of reporters and staffers have apparently been engaged in full-scale dry runs for weeks in preparation for launch.
Will Steve Jobs appear for the Daily’s launch? It’s in San Francisco, so it’s less of a commute, and since Murdoch has apparently pumped $300MM into this venture, perhaps Jobs feels like he owes a personal appearance to him.
That said, it’s hard to say if The Daily will be a success in the long run: Rupert Murdoch and News Corp have seemed perpetually clueless about how to go about running new media ventures (most recently evidenced by the fact that MySpace, under their ownership, has become so irrelevant that they’ve just cut 50% of staff to make the venture profitable again). Digital magazines also haven’t done very well on the iPad, even from established brands. The Daily’s going to have a hard time proving itself.
