During its results call on Wednesday, News Corp. revealed that it had chewed through $10 million in losses for The Daily’s first quarter on the iPad. COO Chase Carey explained the cash outlay as the result of early development, noting that it was “real early days” for the tablet publication. It had been somewhat over a month since it began charging for customers and was popular, but still a “work in progress,” he explained.
About a third of the start up cost came from a $3 million Super Bowl ad. News Corp. estimated that the iPad app takes near $500,000 per week to keep running, which accounts for rest of the burn rate.
News Corp. has made no illusions that it expected to be profitable from the outset. The Daily is expanding quickly and should be reaching Android soon.
