Murdoch: The Daily to cost $1 a week

We've given you some updates these past few days about the Daily, News Corp.'s forthcoming tablet "newspaper" whose masthead is filling up with high-profile editors and reporters.

On Wednesday, we plugged a Fox Business Network clip in which Murdoch said the Daily was his "No. 1 most exciting project," and we noted that it appeared to be the first time he publicly acknowledged the venture. We also said there was still no word about when the Daily would get off the ground.

Turns out we were wrong on both counts. A reader pointed us to this Nov. 5 interview Murdoch gave the Australian Financial Review.

"I'm starting a paper in six weeks," Murdoch said. "A brand-new paper. It will be a bit like the New York Post. But it will be national. ... It will only be seen on tablets."

That would put the launch date around the third week of December. That seems pretty soon if staffers are just being hired. So we'll see if Murdoch's projection pans out.

Murdoch also offered some details on pricing and circulation.

"At the price we are talking about -- that's $1 a week; not a day, a week -- we need 800,000," he told the Review, before launching into his well-documented excitement about the iPad.

"By the end of next year there will be 30 to 40 million iPads," he said. "I believe every single person will eventually have one. Even children."

You can read the Australian Financial Review's full interview with Murdoch here.

(Photo of Murdoch from Aug. 2009: AP/Virginia Mayo, file)