Literally nothing in this world (except pudding) currently interests Rupert Murdoch more than the ongoing development of News Corp's tablet-computer-centric daily publication The Daily. Murdoch plans to achieve preemptive dominance in iPad journalism. Today: details—of the future!

The Daily has been not-so-quietly recruiting talent from all over the place for months. Today, John Koblin takes a look at what they've assembled so far:

News Corp. has spent the last three months assembling a newsroom that will soon be about 100 staffers strong. The Daily will launch in beta mode sometime around Christmas, and will be introduced to the public on the iPad and other tablet devices in early 2011. It is expected to cost 99 cents a week, or about $4.25 a month. It will come out - as the name suggests - seven days a week. The operation is currently working out of the 26th floor of the News Corp. Building on Sixth Avenue in a space that looks like a veritable construction zone. The staff's permanent home will be on the ninth floor, and they'll move down once it's ready.

News Corp is holding back nothing—bringing in stars from inside the company (Richard Johnson, Jesse Angelo), highbrow outsiders (Sasha Frere-Jones), and even trying to raid direct competitors (like the NYDN). Koblin says it will be video-heavy, and god damn it, Rupert Murdoch believes he is assembling nothing less than the future of media, a prototype that will come to be copied, but unequaled. It's notable, though, that the future of media is staffed entirely by people who built their careers in the past of media.

I'm still unclear on how this is different from making a "website."

[WWD. Photo: Getty]