The Irish Times is removing the price of its news app on iPhones and Android smartphones, letting readers download the app for free.

The app offers breaking news stories from The Irish Times throughout the day to complement its news coverage in its print edition and its website.

It was originally a paid app, but The Irish Times has removed the cost as part of its strategy to help position the newspaper as a multimedia player. It said it will place digital growth and investment at the forefront of its agenda.

"We are committed to bringing the journalism of The Irish Times to our users all the time, on every device they use," said The Irish Times online editor Hugh Linehan.

"From smartphones to tablets to e-readers, we’re seeing impressive growth in audiences accessing us through mobile devices, and we’ll be continuing to develop our services for those audiences in 2012,” said Linehan.

According to ABCe figures, there was a growth of 82pc in the number of people browsing The Irish Times website in the year up to November 2010. Monthly page impressions increased from 26.1m in 2009 to 36.2m in 2010.