I came across this fascinating ad for The Times iPad edition when I bought all the day's papers and brought them to the pub for dinner upon arriving London last week.

I'm intrigued by the very traditional print look of the ad, and how it describes the iPad edition as an electronic newspaper.

 

I remember back when I was at City University most newspapers labeled their news sites electronic newspapers, and I even did a stint of workexperience at one of them: what then went under the name "The Electronic Telegraph". This was 2001, and though I had a fantastic time at The Electronic Telegraph, the notion that news sites should be nothing more than an electronic version of the the print paper has been very detrimental to online journalism and online innovation. But be that as it may, this might be the perfect way to advertise the iPad edition to Times readers for all I know. More interestingly, let's take a look at the income potential and the future.

PaidContent reports that "The iPad edition sold 5,000 copies in its first three days, according to Rupert Murdoch, totalling £49,550. Had it sold at the same rate through the month, it would have clocked 50,000 downloads, or £499,500 (£349,650 after Apple’s commission)." But as the edition launched without any built-in way for readers to pay again for as second month, the newspaper is now offering an additional month for free to readers who download the new version with an in-app purchasing mechanism

The story illustrates the rush many newspapers are in to create and launch iPad editions, which brings me to this more sceptical comment by the ever brilliant a_spod left on my post about iPad's role in the media ecosystem (the link below takes you to a post by Daniel Lyons, well worth reading: thanks to a_spod for bringing it to my attention and providing an answer to my question about Apple retaining customer data):

"I keep meaning to post this, pre-iPhone4 link (Warning: I had to skip an ad first). It eloquently sums up my hesitation over the Apple and their iSpawn – well that and the way Apple are treating smaller developers (people have spent a lot of money developing an "app for that" only to have it rejected for unspecified reasons).

"So if tablet computers have really come of age, I'm not sure Appple will be the long-term winner; and I can see the mainstream media pouring a tonne of money into the iPad only to have a Chrome or even Windows usurp it... I haven't got as far as porting my app to the iSpawn. But my my understanding is Apple *do* hang onto customer details. However the restrictions can be sidestepped if you give the app away for free and then charge for the content – at least the WSJ and FT are able to do that."