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Fairfax: It’s a Sydney Morning Herald Smart Edition, not an iPad app

Sydney Morning Herald boss Lloyd Whish-Wilson has told Mumbrella that the paper’s electronic edition launched last week is not intended to be the newspaper’s main iPad app.

He told Mumbrella: “There’s no suggestion this is our app. This is an add-on.”

Last week Fairfax announced the SMH’s Smart Edition with a press release that began:

“The Sydney Morning Herald launches ‘Smart Edition’ App for the iPad  

“Sydney, July 22, 2010: Fairfax Media today announced the launch of The Sydney Morning Herald smart edition app for the iPad, an innovation in publishing that will bring a new dimension to newspaper consumption for both readers and advertisers.

“The smart edition app, which includes a raft of reader-friendly features, allows readers to view The Sydney Morning Herald in full on the iPad, the world’s most talked-about digital device…”

However, Whish-Wilson today told Mumbrella that there had been no intention of presenting its Smart Edition as the SMH iPad app – merely as an electronic edition of the newspaper in PDF format. The iPad app will come in September, he said.

SMH iPad wraparound mumbrellaThe Smart Edition was launched with a four page wraparound dominated by a front cover image of the SMH on an iPad. It is available in the Apple iPad app store where it is currently scoring an average review of one-and-a-half stars out of five.

Asked whether the marketing of the launch of the Smart edition would have been confusing for the market, Whish-Wilson conceded: “Being shown on an iPad was perhaps an error.”

Early this week, Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes was highly critical of the strategy behind the Smart Edition.

But in an email to Mumbrella (reproduced with permission), Whish-Wilson today said:

“The Smart Edition is an electronic version of The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper,which is where we have placed it in the market and which was made clear in the initial press release. It was developed as a value add for those of our subscribers and readers who like the newspaper format and who also want the convenience of reading their newspaper in alternative, electronic formats. It means our subscribers can take their subscription with them to their desk-top; lap-top, or iPad. It also means that we can offer the full newspaper to some people in remote areas for whom delivery had become uneconomic, or very slow and difficult to achieve.

“The SMH has more than 80,000 subscribers Monday-Friday, and more than 120,000 at weekends. The great majority of these enjoy the newspaper “experience.” That is: turning the pages to scan the editorial offerings and making personal reading choices based on headline or subject matter; going to favourite sections; and scanning advertising. These people now have the opportunity to do it where they want to, as part of the cost of their subscription. We have offered them a free trial and will include it in their subscription packages, adding value and convenience. In NSW/ACT, the prices are at present part of our most popular subscription packages. We will very soon also be offering a digital-only subscription in NSW/ACT.

“The Smart Edition was already under development for PCs before the release of the iPad. It was made available on the iPad because it was clear some of our subscribers would very rapidly begin using the new technology. The Smart Edition was never planned, nor expected to be, the end-product in the development of the Sydney Morning Herald iPad app. This is now well in to development, and as MD Brian McCarthy said in his press release, will be released shortly. This will be a paid, inter-active native app, unlike anything yet produced by a newspaper publisher in Australia.”

He told Mumbrella that when the main iPad app is released in September, unlike the Smart Edition it will be available without a print subscription. He said that the price of the app was still be debated internally.

Meanwhile, Fairfax’s Australian Financial Review has this week taken a similar approach, running a house ad promoting afr.com as being “iPad ready”:

afr ipad mumbrella

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