Tribune Co. Developing Tablet for Its Newspapers, Report Says

The Tribune Co., one of the largest newspaper companies in the country, is working on a tablet to offer its subscribers, according to a report from CNN. Tribune owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, a few other daily newspapers and 23 television stations.

According to the report, the tablet will run a modified version of Android and be offered for free or at a low cost as an incentive to sign up for extended newspaper subscriptions. Customers’ hometown newspaper content and apps would feature prominently in the tablet user interface. It’s also possible that a partnership with a wireless carrier could be part of the plans.

Tribune has reportedly had discussions with Samsung and other hardware makers about being a supplier for the project. Sources inside or close to Tribune told CNN that the project has hit many snags along the way and is behind schedule. It was originally hoped that testing could begin in the Chicago and Southern California markets this month.

Tribune’s newspapers currently don’t offer apps optimized for the Android Honeycomb OS.

The tablet project comes at a time when the company is immersed in bankruptcy proceedings and has recently undergone a tumultuous few years involving a change in ownership at the company, layoffs and some key resignations.

The company delcined to comment to PCWorld on the report.