With the unveiling of The Daily, we got our first look at Apple's new iTunes-based periodical subscription service. The feature has been long awaited by publishers, but its implementation is likely to leave many unsatisfied.

To its credit, Apple has made it as easy to purchase a weekly newspaper subscription as it is to purchase a hit single for your iPod. In The Daily's case, the 99-cent weekly price (after a two-week sponsorship by Verizon) is even the same.

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When the iPad was launched last year, much was made of how it would revolutionize video and other media consumption. But new research may not spell good news for all those companies hoping to profit from that kind of use.

Apparently, current iPad owners are proving to be a little stingy when it comes to paying for content like TV shows and magazines.

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The value proposition of new news businesses shouldn't be about saving journalism; rather, they need to focus on meeting consumers' needs and wants, and finding solutions, Mark Briggs, author of "Journalism 2.0" and "Journalism Next," told Missouri School of Journalism's David Cohn.

Entrepreneurs need "to focus on what the consumer needs - what pain are you solving - that's a real Silicon Valley kind of concept, and you see a lot of journalism start-ups that are really about trying to recreate the old jobs that journalists had. That's great, if it would work, but that's not the fantasy world we live in. We live in a world where businesses happen because consumers want something, and so you need to focus on what consumes want. What kind of solution can I bring that will solve this pain?" explained Briggs, who is also working on an upcoming book about entrepreneurial journalism.

Hybrid business models have to begin with a focus on what the business is really about, he added.

"In Silicon Valley, failure is ok; experimentation and risk is great," he pointed out. Those qualities weren't encouraged in journalism in the past, but they are the qualities that need to be embraced today, he said.

For the full video, visit Cohn's blog at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.

In a publication made available online yesterday, the Knight Foundation has detailed possible non-profit local and regional news ventures.

Saving traditional news organisations cannot be helped by the non-profit model; instead, creating and strengthening "informed communities and local information ecosystems, of which journalism is a necessary component" is the type of venture that non-profits can possibly be of help with, the U.S.-based organisation states, the foundation notes. The publication is based on an April 26 meeting sponsored by the Knight Foundation and co-hosted by the Texas Tribune, Voice of San Diego and Knight Chair in Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin.

The non-profit model, if done correctly, helps organisations "to pursue a journalistic mission without the competing demands of operating a for-profit business." The publication points out that the foundation has funded more than 200 experiments using a so-called "built to learn" approach.

Panelist Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, pointed out to the non-profit model being discussed is not a solution meant to fix the news industry's financial woes.

"It isn't for us a question of finding the model, but of experimenting with a lot of different models," he said.