She wanted to return home to work  in TV news in her native Western New York, but former CBS News overnight anchor Emily Smith has returned to New York City to work for a start-up web news operation created by Rupert Murdoch and Steve Job (see right).

On Monday, Smith flew from WNY to NYC to begin working on the video portion of “The Daily,” the iPad news app that the CEOs of Fox and Apple are creating.

On Tuesday, Smith was working as the “content jockey,” host or anchor on the first practice version of the app. It is unclear when the app will be available to users of the iPad and reportedly other tablet computers after the “practices” end.

Smith, a 32-year-old Grand Island native, isn’t available for interviews. But friends said she didn’t make the difficult decision to join “The Daily” until the day she left for NYC.

However, deciding to work for Murdoch and Jobs on this project probably would have a no-brainer for most people in the media. The goal of “The Daily” is reportedly to attract about 5 percent of the 40 million or so who are expected to have iPads in 2011.

The print and video versions of the app will be free for a short period before subscribers will be charged 99 cents per week or $4.25 a month.

As the so-called content jockey or anchor, Smith will be the app users’ guide to the video stories being produced, telling users what to do and where to find the stories.

According to sources, Smith signed a two-month trial deal to be the anchor. She is believed to have been chosen out of several candidates who applied for the job.

Of course, Smith left CBS News in the hope that she would land a weeknight anchor spot in her hometown to be near family and friends.

Channel 4 seemed to be the most logical place for Smith after 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor Lisa Flynn left the station and interim anchor Lia Lando left as well. But sources say that Channel 4 never called.

Sources said that Smith did have an interview with Channel 2, but the station doesn’t have a weeknight anchor spot available and Erika Brason’s former job anchoring on Saturday mornings wouldn’t have been enough to attract Smith.

She then was a serious candidate for an anchor job in Albany but friends say she turned it down.

So Smith is in the odd position of being more sought after nationally than locally.

*Inquiring minds want to know: When is David Milch’s HBO series, “Luck,” set in the horse racing industry, going to premiere? A writer on the show told a national radio audience that it will arrive on the pay-channel in October. It isn’t one of the series that HBO is presently promoting.

*A note about many of the tributes to the late Monday Night Football commentator Don Meredith: Most of the tributes noted that Meredith was on the original MNF team that included Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford and showed video of the trio. Actually, Keith Jackson was the original play-by-play man before Gifford replaced him in season two.

pergament@msn.com     

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