Like most travellers and frequent flyers, the Australian Business Traveller team are fans of quality digital media – especially when it comes to newspapers and magazines.
For example, when overseas I enjoy downloading the latest news from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian onto my iPad and browsing it over breakfast, at the airport lounge or en route to whatever press event I’m attending (no matter what timezone I’m in).
And Saturdays are a real treat because of the extra content packed into in the weekend editions. There’s a good few hours in all that, and as the apps let you read offline they’re great for inflight reading.
As it happens, only last month I added The Australian Financial Review to my Saturday reading list at the local cafe for very much the same reason – as well as the fact that only on Saturday do I have time to enjoy a deep dive into the papers.
And while I’m by no means into ‘finance’ or the markets, the AFR’s got plenty else to appeal, from its business backbone to sections on the likes of marketing, technology (featuring John Davidson, one of Australia’s best and most readable tech reviewers), travel, motoring and design.
Now the ‘Fin has woven itself a little more into my week with the release of an iPad app.
A familiar (inter)face
The AFR app immediately looks familiar because it was cooked up by the same Fairfax team behind the elegant SMH and Age apps.
Like those capital city siblings, the AFR sports a classy made-for-iPad design with an elegant layout, responsive tap-and-swipe interface plus embedded multimedia.
There’s a caveat here: although the app is free to download, you’ll need a subscription to pull down any actual content (apart from the few articles on the home screen).
Anyone can download the app and view articles from the front screen but to experience the full app they will need to verify they have a Financial Review subscription within the app.
That’s more in keeping with The Australian and many other newspapers and magazines compared to SMH & Age twins, where the content remains free.
A digital subscription to the AFR cost $59 a month, although you can sample the app with full content during a 14 day free trial (which means signing up for a subscription and then cancelling it within a fortnight).
It’s also available for free if you subscribe to the Australian Financial Review in print or the afr.com website.
For more details, click to afr.com/app.
Psst – want a free AFR sub?
We’ve got two digital subscriptions to the Australian Financial Review (valued at $680 each) to give away to two AusBT readers.
Just leave a comment below explaining in 25 words or less what you like most about ‘digital newspapers’. The contest closes at 5pm EST on Tuesday June 5th, 2012.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
18 Nov 2011
Total posts 2
No ink all on fingers, in turn all over clothes. Secondly: I can carry two hundred of them without looking like a crazy person.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
'Offline reading' is a win on a plane, in a long customs line and for catching up on news between meetings etc.
29 May 2012
Total posts 1
You can always take the paper with you everywhere without disturbing others while turning pages.
29 May 2012
Total posts 1
Reading broadsheet papers on my ipad while travelling is as good as it gets.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Apr 2012
Total posts 57
No weight in the hand luggage. Updated stories day or night north or south hempishere & on the money forex rates at your fingertips.
01 Feb 2012
Total posts 371
Saves paper, saves trees. Helps businesses be carbon neutral and reduce effects of climate change.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 May 2011
Total posts 233
I'd like a digital AFR subscription so I can read it without people realising and thinking I'm a knob
29 May 2012
Total posts 2
I love being able to flick through the pages quickly, and diving in for a closer look at the articles that are of most interst to me.
27 Sep 2011
Total posts 6
No more having to turn the paper back on itself, trying to stop knock arms with the person next to you on the plane.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
10 Nov 2011
Total posts 129
So much easier to read in small spaces (like a plane seat), and it just looks damn cool.
05 Mar 2012
Total posts 3
Convenience of being able to access current days news anywhere in the world, and helping the environment with less waste in printing a paper copy.
29 May 2012
Total posts 1
The satisfaction of swiping over articles and opinion you disagree with using little to no effort!
29 May 2012
Total posts 1
Good excuse to buy an iPad!
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2560
Hey guys, voting somebody else's entry down won't make a spit of difference to whom we choose! :)
06 Jan 2011
Total posts 14
The embedded media- being able to watch an interview (see tone of voice and expressions) and read the analysis in the same article.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Sep 2011
Total posts 77
Completely useless for many. We get several print copies of the AFR in the office during the week. However when I go home or to another city on the weekend, there is no such thing as a digital-only-Saturday-only subscription or the ability to buy one-off downloads on any day including Saturdays. Nice try, no cigar as yet
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