Virtual Newsstand Aim of Joint Venture of Media Conglomerates

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Four media giants that focus on magazines and the newspaper-heavy News Corp. are joining forces in a joint venture to create a digital newsstand.

Conde Nast, Time, Inc., Meredith, the Hearst Corp. and News Corp. visualize creating an industry-standard platform and an online store, similar to iTunes, where the media consortium can sell  publications to consumers who can view them on their cell phones, electronic readers, the Internet, and other digital devices yet to be devised.  The media moguls believe advertisers will pay a higher price for placement in these digital publications.

The joint venture is thus far, nameless, and none of its members has disclosed a dollar amount they expect to contribute to the effort. However, Time, Inc. executive veep John Squires will serve as the venture's interim general manager.  The success of the project is dependent on the willingness of Amazon's Kindle e-reader and Apple's iTunes to adopt the joint venture's technology standards.

"TUOL" finds it hard to imagine digitally reading magazines in the bathroom and laments the likely extinction of magazine newsstands where cranky vendors short-change the customers and yell at them not to thumb through the adult periodicals.