Murdoch waits on Apple to bring The Daily to the UK

PUBLISHING MOGUL and online paywall enthusiast Rupert Murdoch is waiting on Apple to release its subscription payment system to bring his Ipad-only online news rag, The Daily, to the UK.

Murdoch launched The Daily back in February to much fanfare and now Jon Miller, chief digital officer at News Corporation told conference goers at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit that The Daily will tip up in Blighty in the first half of 2011.

The Guardian is reporting that News Corporation is waiting for Apple to start its subscription service before launching The Daily and that there will eventually be a UK edition. Initially however that is likely to be the US edition, recycled for Brits.

At present Murdoch is giving away The Daily in the US and Miller said the publication will be facing its "moment of truth next week", referring to the time when it starts charging readers.

Murdoch has priced The Daily to be 99 cents per week or $40 a year. Whether that will be a low enough price to entice readers not to head off for the free alternatives will be seen next week.

According to The Guardian's sources, The Daily has managed to scrape together only 5,000 subscribers so far. Murdoch is desperately hoping that when readers are forced to pay that figure will rocket up.

Murdoch shouldn't worry if it doesn't, there are plenty of free alternatives around that will happily take the strain. µ