Fairfax Media releases details of its pricing plan for the forthcoming Sydney Morning Herald iPad app. The announcement, the newest development in the race among newspaper publishers to create revenue out of a new generation of devices, sees Fairfax charging $4.50 a week for the electronic edition of the newspaper along with a delivery of weekend print editions. The app will be available on Apple's iTunes store.

Fairfax says that it would be the first Australian newspaper publisher to bundle its print version with an electronic version. A custom built iPad app, which would include extra content, is slated for release later this year.

The soon-to-be released app is significantly more expensive than its closest competitor. News Limited, which publishes the Australian, has a subscription price of $4.99 per month.

The Sydney Morning Herald Website will also be available in electronic form for $1 a week. The price is for readers overseas, of which the newspaper has 4.5 million a month. The subscription requires an overseas internet provider and a foreign credit card.

No exact release date for the iPad app has been announced.