Over all the clamor surrounding Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper, The Daily, you might not have heard that another extremely rich man is launching a fairly similar product this month: Richard Branson, who unveiled his monthly culture magazine, Project, for the iPad yesterday. The 100-page inaugural issue features Jeff Bridges on the cover, but the content will change daily, even hourly, with enabled links on each page, according to The Hollywood Reporter. So, can Rupert Murdoch's paper, which may not even have any outbound links at all, do that? And maybe he's not spending as much money as Murdoch, Branson explained, but it's fine, he's not worried about it:

Branson was hopeful that 'word of mouth' would help ameliorate the limited marketing budget. 'If our team has done the job right, and I think they have, bloggers will do the work for us,' he said. 'We definitely haven't got a Rupert Murdoch-size advertising budget.'"

Like, maybe some other loaded people are just buying an excellently staffed publication, Branson casually explained to reporters, but not him:

"Branson would not offer a dollar figure on how much money he is pouring into Project .... [But] unlike Rupert Murdoch's tablet newspaper The Daily, which has amassed a staff of 100 and is spending $30 million on its launch, Project's staff will stay lean with about 20 employees working out of the magazine's offices."

Not that it bothers the attention-grabbing entrepreneur that everybody's talking about Murdoch:

Branson got his tablet magazine to market ahead of Daily, which is set to launch early next year. 'I've read quite a bit about a battle I've launched with a certain newspaper man,' quipped Branson. 'It's all about competition. And a fair amount of competition doesn't hurt anyone. It's not a battle. It's not a war.'"

Nope, DOESN'T BOTHER HIM AT ALL.

Richard Branson on Rivalry with Rupert Murdoch: 'It's Not a War' [HR]
Richard Branson vs. Rupert Murdoch: “A Battle on Quality” [Mixed Media/Forbes]