The Belfast Telegraph is set to launch paid-for news apps for the iPhone and iPad.

Users will be pay a one-off download fee for the iPhone app, followed by six-monthly or annual options to upgrade, while the iPad app will be paid for by monthly subscription.

The iPad app will aim to recreate the look and feel of the printed newspaper, with adverts and pictures embedded around copy in pages, while the iPhone app will give people shorter summaries of news stories.

It comes after the newspaper launched three free iPhone apps for its property, motors and recruitment platform, with plans to start another which allows users to place their own classified ads.

Sam McIlveen, digital publisher for Independent News and Media (Northern Ireland), said: “Our strategy is to be a truly multiplatform publisher and make our content available through all the media our users want to access it on. Launching apps is simply a part of this commitment.”

The Telegraph’s Propertynews app was the first to be launched in April, which has been downloaded around 20,000 times.

Motors app niCarfinder was started in June and this was followed by niJobfinder in August.

The three apps were developed in partnership with GCD Technologies and make use of the iPhone’s geotagging function to provide listings relevant to the user’s location.

And the paper hopes to create new revenue streams by selling advertising space on its free apps and sponsorship on its subscription apps.

In August, the title launched a Photosales section on its website, allowing readers to buy prints of images from the newspaper.