Sales of Murdoch's online paper are way below target

More than seven months after Rupert Murdoch promised that News Corp's Apple iPad-only publication The Daily would transform the news industry, it can only boast a circulation equal to that of local Ohio paper the Toledo Blade.

Those with access to News Corp's data have revealed that The Daily is attracting just 120,000 readers a week. At its launch at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in February, Mr Murdoch, News Corp's chief executive, claimed it would "make the business of newsgathering viable again".

But so far the numbers are not adding up, according to John Nitti at the media buyer Zenith Optimedia, who works with one of The Daily's sponsors. "They won't tell us how many paying subscribers, but that's how many uniques The Daily is getting," he told Bloomberg.

To break even on price alone The Daily needs 650,000 people to pay the annual $39.99 subscription. With ad revenue, it needs 500,000 subscribers, Mr Murdoch has said.