Five of the largest U.S. newspaper and magazine publishers have announced plans to develop a new digital e-reader format that would meld the visual esthetics of print with the rich capabilities of online media, including video, social networking, touch input, and games. A joint venture of publishing powerhouses Time Inc., News Corp., Conde Nast, Hearst Corp., and Meredith Corp., the project will launch next year. It's designed to offer a superior user experience to current e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, which are fine for book-reading but ill-equipped to handle video, high-resolution color images, and other media elements that today's Web-browsing readers take for granted.
The new digital format is targeted at a new generation of touchscreen-equipped smart phones, e-readers, and tablet computers, including the just-announced Fusion Garage JooJoo (previously known as the CrunchPad), and the anticipated-but-unannounced Apple tablet, which many industry watchers expect to debut sometime in 2010.