Fairfax Media has made its long-expected move to the mobile world, yesterday launching iPad apps for reading its two flagships: Melbourne’s Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.They’re free for the next six months, but from December Fairfax will begin charging readers $8.99 a month for either title.
This is the same amount rival News Corp charges for the iPad version of The Australian.
Fairfax says it won’t lock up all its content, instead offering a “freemium” model that is partly free and partly paid.
Hywood says that while it is not in the company’s interests to shrink the audience the move will widen the net.
“The company is nearing 180 years (old) and for 180 years people have paid for content,” he said at the app launch. “There was a period where that print content was translated online and was for free.
“Publishers around the world are making the judgement that that period is essentially over. But it puts an onus on them that their journalism is essentially differentiated enough (to persuade people to pay for it).
“You have to reprosecute your entire strategy around what is paid and what is not.”
Rather than using a Web site layout, Fairfax has deliberately designed the online papers for the tablet experience, with something of a magazine approach.
Each edition will include core content sections 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 sections including Spectrum, News Review and Good Living.
Fairfax Media’s digital CEO and publisher Jane Huxley says that with a million iPads expected in the Australian market by the end of the year, the potential audience for the new apps will be the 60 to 70 per cent of iPad owners likely to be interested in news. An Android version of the app is due in about three months.
Huxley says peak periods of consumption are expected to be during the commuter hours of 7am to 9am and 5pm to 7pm, as well as after 10pm.
Fairfax has appointed separate editors for the apps: Stephen Hutcheon in Sydney and David Dick in Melbourne.
The apps will be available from the iTunes store today.
Four launch sponsors – ING, Toyota, American Express and Emirates – have come on board for periods of 3-6 months, most featuring full-page ads which the reader can swipe to move past.
