News Corp to release national newspaper for tablets, smartphones

One of the largest media companies in the world has announced plans to launch a digital newspaper exclusively for tablets PCs and cellphones. The newsroom "would operate under the auspices of Murdoch's New York Post," the L.A. Times reports.

This digital paper is News Corp's latest effort to harness digital technology to evolve its media properties. "We'll have young people reading newspapers," News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said during the company's Aug. 4 earnings call, according to the Times. "It's a real game changer in the presentation of news." Users will have to pay for the digital newspaper, the Times found, but pricing and release details have not been confirmed. Politico reports: "...people familiar with the matter said the news organization would like it to debut by year's end." The initiative would compete with national dailies such as USA Today and the New York Times. The LA Times writes "the new digital newspaper would target a more general readership, offering short, snappy stories that could be digested quickly." News Corp is continuing to create technologies to adapt to 21st-century gadgets such as the iPad. This week, it announced its MySpace will introduce a music-video application that can be used on the social network’s website and on the iPad.