Fairfax Metro Media has launched a print to mobile integration which enables readers to scan a photo in the paper to view further content, such as video, on their smartphone.

‘AirLink’ which is available from today in the Sydney Morning Herald, and from Sunday in the Sun-Herald, allows readers to supplement their print experience with video, photos and related editorial using the SMH iPhone app. To activate additional content, readers can tap the AirLink button in the app and scan their iPhone over an image where they see the AirLink logo.

The technology will also allow advertisers to play TVCs or other video content to readers of print, enabling consumers to look up more information on ads they find interesting. As launch partner for the initiative, MasterCard is the first advertiser to try the new service, which will feature up to ten articles with supplementary content each day.

“AirLink allows us to bridge newspaper and mobile platforms,” editor-in-chief and publisher of Sydney Publishing, Peter Fray, says. “By providing a wealth of additional content to readers on their iPhone we are giving them an enriched experience of our newspapers unlike anything they have seen before.”

“For our advertisers AirLink opens brand new avenues to communicate with Fairfax Metro Media’s discerning and intelligent audiences,” Fray adds.

AirLink works as an integrated feature of the free SMH app for iPhones. According to Google’s recently released smartphone study, ‘Our Mobile Planet’, 18% of Australian smartphone owners already use their handset at the same time as reading newspaper or magazine, and 52% have used their smartphone to look up more information after seeing an ad in a magazine.