‘The Daily’, a newspaper for iPad

LONDON - Media baron Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation Thursday launched a next generation digital newspaper for iPad tablet computer, beginning a new era in the rapidly-advancing mass communication system.

Murdoch unveiled The Daily, a digital-only product, at New York’s Guggenheim museum, The Guardian reported.

The Daily, a news operation created from scratch and designed specifically for the iPad, would herald a new journalism for new times, Murdoch said.

It would combine the “serendipity and surprise” of newspapers with the speed and versatility of new technology, he was quoted as saying. It would make news-gathering “viable again”.

Describing his new venture as the digital renaissance, he said, with the Daily, there would be “no paper, no multimillion-dollar presses, no trucks”. That in turn, gave its editors the licence to experiment and innovate.

For now, the Daily will only be available for iPad owners in the US. News Corporation said that international markets will come online in the near future.

Murdoch has invested $30 million in the digital venture. He said it would cost $26 million a year to cover its costs.