The Daily: Going through the motions

It's been nearly three weeks since my "Five days of The Daily" post, in which I expressed mostly admiration for The Daily and where I thought it should go. 

Sadly, I feel like all that hope has evaporated. I feel like The Daily is going through the motions, hitting singles instead of triples and home runs. I find myself coming back to one question: What are they spending $500,000 per week on?

In the week or so after my initial post, The Daily seemed to believe in itself, tackling multi-part series on meaty subjects like education reform and a very good profile of a badly wounded U.S. serviceman who was voluntarily returning to the front lines. The reporting was good, the digital elements like video, extra photos and charts were good. Things were humming. Confidence was in the air. 

I love a fun headline as much as anyone, but the juvenile quotient has been growing in recent weeks.Then the bottom seemed to fall out. Coverage since devolved to little more than your normal metro tabloid, with big cheesy headlines (example at right), easy potshots, and goofy packaging of silly stories between serious news packages. I can't remember a recent story with a "Daily exclusive" label. Even the sports coverage, where it's really hard for journalist to be lifeless, is just that. This product seems just that: a "product" without any fight.

Couple other things I've noticed recently:

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'Classic' bakersfield.com lives on in promotional poster

This version of the bakersfield.com homepage is at least five years and two versions oldLooking for bakersfield.com content from yesteryear? I wasn't on Sunday night but I found it outside a bathroom wall in Rabobank Arena. 

I did a doubletake at Sunday's Bakersfield Condors game when I was greeted by this old-school homepage outside one of the men's restrooms.

WTF?

This site design was put out to pasture five years ago when we introduced a new logo and content mix. And we've since launched another design, meaning this poster is promoting a look that's two generations old.  

The Californian has had marketing agreements with SMG, the entity that manages the arena for the city of Bakersfield, over the years. This particular promotion dates to at least 2006, and included other signage inside the arena. 

I distinctly remember seeing this poster a few years ago and telling our then marketing manager, "We need to update this." 

Shows you how much pull I had at the time because "classic" bakersfield.com apparently still has cache in some circles. 

Five days of The Daily

If you're in the news business, the big industry buzz of the past week was the launch of The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's new iPad-only news app. Even those who don't have iPads were chiming in on The Daily, good or bad. I can't recall this kind of interest in a news product in a long time.

If you're a regular reader of this site, you know I posted back in November that I was tired of pre-launch hate for The Daily, which only picked up steam with Wednesday's launch. I thought some of that post-launch criticism was justified (particularly with technical issues and thin hard-news report) while much was blind hate toward Murdoch and something different. After Day 1, I shared a quick update to that November post and said I'd follow-up after a few days of thorough review.

An iTunes-style story carousel is a great way to scan storiesAnd?

I feel like a piece of swaying seaweed writing this but I after 5 days of reading, I have a love-hate relationship with The Daily. One minute I'm thrilled, the next I'm shaking my head in disgust.
An iTunes-style story carousel makes it easy to skim topics.

I understand The Daily is not supposed to be The New York Times or even Huffington Post -- it's a tabloid for tablets. "The Daily" is not a publication of record. It skims the news and makes no bones about ignoring important news that for whatever reason doesn't make the cut.

Presentation is frequently striking, which is magnified on a high-resolution platform like the iPad.But too often The Daily seems thrown together, with digital tricks often inserted at the expense of relevant information.

I think The Daily is a product with tons of promise that surprises me enough each day to keep me coming back. But there are some flaws that I consider serious in light of The Daily's $25 million pre-launch costs and $500,000 per week operating costs moving forward.

So, follow me as I run through some highlights and lowlights, as well as a few suggestions:

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