An email to users reads: “As a thank you, and as we’re aware that some of the editorial features you’ve been waiting for haven’t yet been included, we’d like to offer you a free 30-day subscription, which will begin when your current subscription ends.”

The paper launched its iPad app - a well-working edition that feels like the newspaper but is built for the tablet rather than merely replicated from print - at May’s end.

But News International didn’t add any recurring subscription method at the time. By June, it had to give early downloaders a free month as an inducement to upgrade to a version with the feature finally built in. And a month later, it gave users another free month as an apology for bugs in the app, which some users, but not all, have experienced.

At that point, the paper promised a new version, including its weekday pull-out supplements, daily crossword and Saturday Magazine. But this has still not appeared.

The iPad launch timetable challenged many an app developer to release effective, bug-free apps in time for its May debut. Elsewhere in the group, News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) has taken its time, confirming only lately that it will build a new U.S. national iPad title on its New York Post.

Murdoch said Times iPad sales in the first three days were 5,000; a former Times reporter has put them at 12,500 by mid-July. We would, therefore, guess at about 20,000 downloads by now.

But that is about 20,000 readers whose £9.99 ($15.54) renewals (or, £200,000 ($311.03) a month) The Times is having to forgo - not including the previous giveaways - because the app isn’t ship-shape.

In the meantime, The Times has been selling display ads in to the app.