Friday, 27 July 2012
• Record monthly downloads of SMH and Age for iPad apps, up 20 per cent over May
• Record daily use of SMH iPhone app driven by AirLink and the print edition
• Combined print/digital paid sales of the SMH and The Age boosted by digital edition sales
Fairfax Media’s Metro Media division today published its monthly Fairfax Metro Media Audience Report (FMMAR) for June 2012.
1. Record downloads with the launch of Version 2.0 of The SMH and The Age iPad apps
The release of the new version of the SMH and Age for iPad created a monthly record for downloads. There were 116,560 new downloads in June with cumulative downloads up 19 per cent for the SMH and up 20 per cent for The Age on the last month.
This took the total to 695,247 downloads. Deep levels of engagement are indicated by more than 436,000 existing readers upgrading to the new version in just over a fortnight.
“We’ve had an extraordinary number of downloads in just 16 days,” Fairfax Metro Media CEO, Jack Matthews, said. “It even outstrips the launch of the apps a year ago. Our aim is to get as many people as possible to sample the new version before we introduce digital subscriptions next year.”
Version 2.0 has a raft of new features including interactive crosswords, TV guides, seamless experience of synching between desktop and iPad for clippings, tracking of comments and favourite news topics as well as The (Sydney) Magazine and The (Melbourne) Magazine.
2. Record daily use of SMH iPhone app thanks to AirLink with the print edition
Daily unique browsers on the SMH iPhone app jumped 23 per cent in June to a new record, driven by the first full month of the AirLink tool, which links video and photo galleries to articles and ads in the SMH print edition.
The average number of daily unique browsers was 9,406, a six‐fold increase on a year ago. Page impressions for the month increased 13 per cent on last month to more than 2.1 million. The first full month of AirLink saw 21 per cent of users activate a link. AirLink users are also more engaged – consuming 53 per cent more pages per visit than non‐AirLink users.
“It’s great to see the newspaper has helped push use of iPhone apps and which in turn has created a rich media experience from the printed page,” Jack Matthews said. “We’re looking forward to its launch with The Age in a few months.”
3. Combined print/digital sales
The combined print/digital sale for The Age on weekdays grew 1 per cent on May, while it fell 1 per cent for The Saturday Age and The Sunday Age. The month‐on‐month movement was driven by a 16 per cent growth in the paid digital replica edition of the newspaper while print sales dropped 1 per cent on the previous month.
The combined print/digital sale for The SMH was down 3 per cent across six days on May, as was The Sun‐Herald. Sales of the SMH digital edition rose 4 per cent on May, while the print edition fell 4 per cent on the previous month.
The combined print/digital sale removes any duplication from packaged sales and is comparable to the new Total Masthead Sales measure. As SMH and Age digital products all grew, results for print editions reflected continued management to lower, more sustainable levels. Most of the decline was due to the continued effect of removing deeply discounted circulation, as previously reported.
“We’re right on track for removing deeply discounted circ that was of no value to our advertisers,” Jack Matthews said. “We make no apology for focusing on full price retail and long‐term subscriptions.”
/ENDS
Enquiries:
Miranda Schuppan
Communications Director
Fairfax Metro Media
T: +61 3 8667 2661
M: 0409 256 764
E: mschuppan@fairfaxmedia.com.au
