Fairfax gives iPad apps a second go
Fairfax Media is to take a second run at a iPad offerings for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, with new apps to launch tomorrow.
The move – which sees the app initially available free to consumers as a sponsorship model – is the second time the SMH has flirted with the iPad.
Last July the newspaper launched what it described as the “smart edition app for the iPad”. It promoted the launch with a four page wraparound of the SMH.
However, it quickly emerged that the creation was in reality little more than a PDF of the print edition.
Of the 1,938 reviews since given to the app on iTunes, 1,460 have since given the offering just one star out of five.
At the time publisher Lloyd Whish-Wilson – who has since left – said that Fairfax would launch its full iPad offering last September.
An article in today’s SMH says the apps will cost $8.99 per month from December. However, it would appear that they will not contain the full content of the newspaper edition instead promising “many stories from the newspapers, including features, and their websites.”
The Herald quotes Fairfax Metro boss Jack Matthews as describing his rivals’ offerings as looking “like dogs” in comparison.
The Australian’s app is also priced at $8.99 and currently rates two-and-a-half stars out of five from iTunes reviewers.
Richard Freudenstein, CEO of The Australian and News Digital Media is to give the keynote at next week’s Mumbrella360 conference where it is likely he will talk about News Ltd’s paid content plans.
4.25pm update: According to an announcement from Fairfax: “Each edition will include core content sections for the Sydney Morning Herald or The Age plus an Editor’s Choice section which includes a curation of the top stories of the day. Readers will be given the option to download magazines such as the Good Weekend and newspaper including Spectrum, News Review and Good Living amongst others.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Who says you can’t flog a dead horse!
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Owww! I do!
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So explain to me again why I wouldn’t just visit the website from my ipad to get the free news??
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@emily Because much of the Fairfax iPad app’s content won’t be available on the website. And because the plan is it will look too beautiful to resist. And because iPad users like to feel special. Matthews has explained this previously. (Except that last bit.)
We’ll have to wait and see.
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@doug “Because much of the Fairfax iPad app’s content won’t be available on the website.” – source?
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Try again Fairfax. When will you learn consumers wont to pay for content they can access for free on the web. I bet this app will still run mobile ads yet you want the consumer to pay… isn’t that double dipping? Market leaders – I think not.
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@craig Matthews has said that there will be varying levels of content available across Fairfax’s apps. Assume that means they’ll hold back some of the bigger, meatier stuff from the website to put it on the app. If they’re going to charge for an iPad app, surely it makes sense to give readers something extra they can’t get on the website?
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For those who didn’t read today’s SMH article, linked to above, here’s what Matthews said about the free v pay-for-content issue:
”You can’t charge for something on an iPad and give it away free on a desktop. And you can’t charge for something in a newspaper and give it away free on a tablet,” he said.
”The idea that you’re going to get the same thing free in one area and pay for it in another area is probably yesterday’s strategy.”
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did that take a year? wow.
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$8.99 a month and charging advertisers??? Someone at Fairfax clearly doesn’t understand digital.
The Australian tried launching an app, they only had 5000 downloads in total. Apple makes a 30% cut, someone do the math.
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@I could do better: Don’t you buy a paper and get ads too? How about a magazine? Even with cable TV you pay monthly and still get ads. Your point of view seems inconsistent. Do you understand Media?
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