Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation launched its iPad-only newspaper The Daily amid great hype in February 2011.
Here, implied News Corps and its partner Apple - and an enthusiastic gaggle of media commentators - was the future of publishing: a newspaper as a digital product, made bespoke for tablet devices, sold for $0.99 (Dh3.63) a week with no physical incarnation. Murdoch himself summed up the advantages at the launch event in New York: "There's no paper, no multimillion-dollar presses, no trucks, and we're passing on these savings to the reader. The target audience is the 50 million Americans expected to own tablets in the next year."
It all sounded so promising. Fast-forward 22 months, though, and the dream is already over. News Corp closed The Daily on December 15 for a simple reason: too few readers, meaning too little revenue. The future of publishing is not, it seems, as simple as we thought.
There's been much post-mortem analysis of The Daily over the past few weeks. One persuasive vein of analysis has it that the publication failed because - like almost all the digital publications out there today - it never really was a digital publication. Instead, it simply took the content, presentation and the whole nature of a traditional print newspaper and plastered that all over an iPad screen. We still don't know what a truly digital publication looks like, runs this analysis, because we haven't invented it yet.
Coincidentally, though, a few weeks before The Daily folded, a new magazine began life that some commentators believe really does point the way towards the future of publishing. And it looks a whole lot different from The Daily.
This new publication - available for the Apple Newsstand - is called simply The Magazine and it's a general interest read for people who love technology. So far, so standard. But The Magazine is the creation of Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper - a reading app that saves online articles for later reading and presents them via a stripped down, text-only layout. Crucially, The Magazine is informed by the same pared-down sensibility: it publishes once every two weeks, presenting just four articles of around 1,000 words, each via a single, scrollable page with minimal to no illustration.
Is this, then, what the future of publishing really looks like? The influential technology, design and content blogger Craig Mod thinks so. Soon after the arrival of The Magazine he wrote a long blog post titled Subcompact Publishing (http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing) that quickly went viral. In the post, Mod compares the disruptive potential of The Magazine to that of the subcompact cars that Honda pioneered in the late 1960s.
People, runs this argument, don't want print magazine style publications on their digital devices. While they work well on paper, on touch-screen they become cumbersome, difficult to navigate and visually busy. Instead, digital devices and the tablet reading experience demands the kind of stripped down publication embodied by The Magazine.
Crucially, the economics work, too. The Daily had 100,000 subscribers generating about $3 million (Dh11m) in revenue, but even that wasn't enough to fund the large editorial team it took to produce it. The Magazine, by contrast, has one editor - Arment - and pays four writers a modest fee - cover those costs and the rest is profit.
Sure, subcompact is not yet a fully realised media trend. But 2013 could see the arrival of a swathe of subcompact publications. And that very well might mean a whole new, and resolutely digital, world for print media.
David Mattin is lead strategist at trendwatching.com
Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
West Indies v England ODI series:
West Indies squad: Jason Holder (c), Fabian Allen, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Oshane Thomas.
Fixtures:
1st ODI - February 20, Bridgetown
2nd ODI - February 22, Bridgetown
3rd ODI - February 25, St George's
4th ODI - February 27, St George's
5th ODI - March 2, Gros Islet
Company Profile
Company name: NutriCal
Started: 2019
Founder: Soniya Ashar
Based: Dubai
Industry: Food Technology
Initial investment: Self-funded undisclosed amount
Future plan: Looking to raise fresh capital and expand in Saudi Arabia
Total Clients: Over 50
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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