'The Daily' Plans an Android Edition Soon

The Daily -- Rupert Murdoch's audacious attempt to build a tablet-only newspaper -- is expanding its horizons, and the Huffington Post is rolling out a new grassroots effort.  

Until now The Daily has been available only on the iPad but News Corp. says an Adroid version is in the works and will launch soon.  It will run on 10-inch tablets like the Galaxy Tab as well as 7-inch tablets like the just-announced Amazon Kindle Fire.

Adding the fast-growing Android platform should help The Daily grow and prosper.  So far, it's atracted more than 80,000 paying subscribers and has about 40,000 readers trying it out on a free trial basis, the company says.   

HuffPo

And over at the Huffington Post, the buzz is that the company has bought an online grassroots platform called Localocracy.  HuffPo already publishes local news in highly-defined urban and suburban areas through its "Patch" editions.

Localocracy calls itself "an online town common where registered voters using real names can weigh in on local issues."  It's so far active in a handful of Massachusetts communities, including Amherst, Arlington, Cambridge, Granby, Milford and South Hadley.

The  use of real, verified identities is intended to eliminate, or at least discourage, the kind of vile, obscene and hurtful name-calling that has poisoned not only the well but the whole idea of online dialogue.

Huffpo is also abuzz over recording 1 billion page views during August, its highest ever.