Publisher Group Officially Announces Digital Content Joint Venture

Conde Nast, Time Inc., Meredith, Hearst and News Corp. to create common format, storefront.

By Bill Mickey
Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Five publishers today announced a joint venture to develop a common digital publishing platform and Web storefront to sell electronic versions of magazines and newspapers for portable digital devices. The much-reported, and now official, partnership between Conde Nast, Time Inc., Meredith, Hearst and News Corp. will reach a combined audience of 145 million readers.

According to the announcement, which doesn't provide a launch date for the products and doesn't name the company or the team who will run it—although Time Inc. executive vice president John Squires has been tapped as an interim managing director—the joint venture will focus on four goals:

-The creation of a common content format for all publications

-A publishing platform that can run on multiple devices and operating systems

-A storefront where consumers can purchase the content

-An array of 'innovative' advertising formats

"For the consumer, this digital initiative will provide access to an extraordinary selection of engaging content products, all customized for easy download on the device of their choice, including smartphones, e-readers and laptops," said Squires in the announcement.

The equity parters are backing up the venture with their own products, claiming a reach of about 145 million unduplicated readers, per MRI figures, and are inviting other publishers to contribute products as well.

Revenue, said the announcement, will come from content and advertising sales and print subscriptions—implying that opportunities to subscribe to print products will be offered alongside the digital content.

The field of mobile and e-reader content, as well as a common storefront to sell it, has become a crowded one. The joint venture's announcement comes just days after a Hearst-incubated company called Skiff announced its own, very similar effort. Skiff will produce a common content format, a storefront to sell it, and advertising opportunities as well.

Time Inc. and Conde Nast are both already producing digital editions of their magazines for a tablet format. Squires told PaidContent's Staci Kramer that these products are "very much the products we want to enable for the industry."

He also said that while he's "respectful" of other efforts, such as Skiff, he expects the joint venture to "provide the format and standards."