The Letter about The Age's app for The iPad, translated

Paul Ramadge, The Editor of The Age, wrote an “open letter” to The Readers of The Age , where he talks about The Digital Edition of The Age, just released on The iPad from The Apple. I read it online from their website, I don’t know if it made it to the digital version of the dead tree edition, because I’m still waiting for it to finish downloading.

I will now translate The Letter from marketingspeak into The English.

Dear readers,

Is there anybody out there?

Here’s to a happy and safe Christmas, after a momentous year in almost every way, from politics to sport and the way we live in this great city.

Our CEO abandoned ship after only just a few months. Thank goodness the rest of us made it to Christmas with our jobs intact.

In our daily lives, a lot changed in 2010. It was another year of rapid updates in technology. When we think of smartphones and smart e-readers, it’s as if the steady heartbeat of life has become a constant series of accelerated heartbeats — scary if it were a medical condition, but exciting in an information-rich world.

We just noticed that people are buying iPhones and iPads.

Today, to keep up with the times and provide even better service to our readers and advertisers, we launch a Digital Edition of The Age for iPad users. It is available through Apple’s iStore [sic].

In order to appear relevant, we’ve released a glorified PDF reader.

The Digital Edition represents the arrival of another exciting era of news delivery.

It’s a *really* glorified PDF reader.

To many of The Age’s traditional readers — those who prefer the tactile experience of reading the printed paper over a cup of tea or coffee or spread out in shared sections across a dining-room table — The Age’s Digital Edition may not appeal at first glance.

I hate it.

However, to a generation that favours screens over paper, we hope the edition will be extremely popular.

But, you know, kids these days have some funny ideas about things.

It is likely to appeal to other readers too, especially those with busy and fast weekday lives in which electronic connectivity and mobility are paramount.

Broadsheets don’t work well in trams. I hear people are using iPads on trams these days.

The Digital Edition — available free for a limited period —

We’re doing this for free for a little while to get people hooked, and hope they don’t go back to the website after we start trying to monitise our PDF reader.

is a global product, available any time and anywhere  there is an internet connection.

We’re sending PDFs through the Internet. The Internet is really cool.

You will get a full copy of The Age every day — from News, BusinessDay and Sport through to our popular sections. And it will look exactly like the paper. In fact, it will be the paper — just on a screen, not on paper, and with added attractions such as zoom and search functions.

PDFs are really cool too.

You will be able to click on headlines to highlight individual stories, flip through pages, open text-only windows,> > > search for topics, and share articles with friends and colleagues.

As soon as I figure out how an iPad user “clicks” on headlines, I’ll mention that as well.

The Digital Edition is a reminder that as times change, so does The Age. But change does not mean we are shifting away from our values. We are committed to protecting and promoting what we stand for — quality, independent journalism.

New technology won’t change our basic values. But it’s also not changing anything else about how we operate, unfortunately.

We hope you enjoy this new way to read The Age. Please let us know what you think by sending your feedback to> ipadfeedback@theage.com.au > .

We hope you like our PDF reader, because we’re kind of out of ideas.

Blessings for Christmas, from all at The Age.

I hope we all have jobs next year.