Fairfax launches subscriber-only sites for The Age & The SMH

Fairfax Media national subscriber editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, David Rood, is leading an initiative to enrich the subscriber experience with new “Subscriber First” sites and e-newsletters offering subscribers a greater depth of exclusives as well as specially curated content, analysis and commentary.

Subscriber First sites for The SMH and The Age have launched this week.

Rood, formerly editor of The Sun ­Herald and a journalist with almost 15 ­years of storytelling and news-breaking experience in Sydney and Melbourne, has overseen the development of the Subscriber First sites.

David Rood

Twice­ daily editions of the sites provide subscribers with exclusive access to a specially curated view of the news, “must read” analysis and opinion from Fairfax Media’s award­-winning journalists, columnists, foreign correspondents, videos, photo galleries and interactive content. Subscribers can also access the popular “Today’s Paper” interactive digital version of current and archive issues of The SMH and The Age newspapers.

“Our subscribers are seeking to be informed and challenged by quality news breaking, analysis and commentary and different storytelling,” Rood said.

“Subscriber First is not afraid to place a premium and priority on analysis and commentary to complement the news as it breaks. My aim is to curate that content and help subscribers make sense of the issues that matter in their city and across the world.”

Another exclusive subscriber initiative adding to Subscriber First is the “Weekend Insight” weekly e-­newsletter from Good Weekend editor Amelia Lester. Arriving in inboxes at noon on Fridays, the newsletter provides a sneak peek at features, columns, Good Weekend, Traveller, Spectrum, Sunday Life and other subscriber favourite sections.

Rood said: “Subscriber First and Weekend Insight are the latest in a series of initiatives delivered specifically for our highly engaged subscriber community. We recently launched The SMH’s Subscriber and The Age’s Subscriber Hub, giving our subscribers a home for exclusive content, events, premium benefits and offers.

“And there’s much more to come, including exclusive editor-­in-­chief weekly e-­newsletters that will take readers behind the new agenda.”