As both tablet adoption and mobile consumption of content continues to grow, many publishers are hurrying to bring out tablet-friendly offerings. However, with tablet-only publication The Daily recently announcing significant cutbacks, it is clear the devices are not the panacea that some publishers may have hoped it was.

The Daily, which is published by News Corporation, said this week that it is laying off 50 full-time employees from a staff of 170. The brand was launched early last year with much fanfare by News Corp. as a significant step ahead for digital publishing.

?I believe this is a Daily problem but only because of the way they run their business model,? said Scott Michaels, vice president at Atimi Software, Vancouver, Canada.

?The Daily is tablet-only publication ? and a Web site ? so they are having to produce all of that content to begin with and without having print content that they can transition to digital,? he said.

?This is very difficult and very costly.?

Reallocating resources
The cutbacks do not mean the end of the publication. Instead, they suggest the company may finally have enough data to understand what parts of the publication users are gravitating towards and what is not grabbing users? attention.

Reports suggest the cutbacks at The Daily are focused on the opinion and sports sections of the publication, where it may not have been getting much interest from readers.

?Unless you are providing true analytics on sports, sports is a really tough area to do something new in because it is so highly competitive,? Mr. Michaels said.

The Daily is not the only news-oriented iPad app finding the space tougher than expected.

Yahoo killed its news aggregator iPad app Livestand a couple of months ago after being available for only a short while. As a late-comer to the news aggregation space, the app was not differentiated enough to grab attention.

For The Daily, the problem is that, as a tablet-only publication, it is creating all original content, which is a very costly endeavor. Just ask any of the newspaper, magazine and broadcast newsrooms that have reduced their reporting staffs over the past few years.

Additionally, because The Daily is a new brand ? and not the tablet extension of an existing news brand ? News Corp. has had to work that much harder and invest that much more into developing a presence for the brand and attracting subscribers as well as advertisers.

In comparison, many other news-oriented tablet offerings such as Flipboard are aggregating content that is already available ? meaning they are not spending any money on reporting ? and using the tablet to provide a more personalized and convenient way to consume that content.

Technical issues
The Daily also had some technical issues out of the gate that may have negatively impacted future use. This shows how important it is in the fast-moving mobile space to take the time to make sure the user experience is strong.

?The Daily was not that well reviewed at the beginning,? Mr. Michaels said. ?It is actually so much better now but like all things in mobile, people?s first impressions seem to stick so that was not a great thing for them.?

While The Daily app has performed well in the Apple App Store, it is having a hard time attracting advertising dollars according to reports. In general, publishers are shifting investment into mobile but have not yet been able to attracting the same level of advertising dollars.

At launch, The Daily advertisers included HBO, Macy?s, Paramount, Pepsi Max, Range Rover, Verizon, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

One reason why The Daily may be having a harder time attracting advertisers because it is a digital-only offering. Other publishers include digital as part of a multitude of solutions for marketers that may include print, radio, broadcast.

Content consumption
Consumers are increasingly consuming a variety of content via mobile devices, including tablets. Compared to a smartphone, tablets offer publishers an opportunity to provide content designed to be consumed in larger chunks since tablet users tend to be in more of a lean-back mode.

As a result, there have been numerous attempts at creating tablet-based magazines and news apps.

There is Flipboard and AOL?s Editions. Next Issue Media recently launched an iPad app enabling users to read popular magazines for a flat monthly fee.

Many newspapers also have their own iPad apps.

The Daily offers a mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds across a wide variety of categories. It was the first app made available on the Apple App Store as a subscription.

News Corp. is preparing to split off its publishing operations as a separate company, which The Daily will be a part of.

?The Daily cutbacks are an isolated event because others are seeing the digital side of their business being a net add to new revenue,? Mr. Michaels said. ?The New York Times apps are a companion to the paper and are supported by advertising while Bloomberg?s Businessweek uses the subscription method and is not cannibalizing existing print sales.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York