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Hearst Launching Kindle Competitor and Platform "By Publishers, For Publishers"

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the thinking-bigger-picture dept.

The Hearst Corporation has announced their intention to launch an e-reader competitor to Amazon's Kindle and a supporting store and platform that is much more "publisher friendly." More details are available form their official press release this morning. "Launching in 2010, Skiff provides a complete e-reading solution that includes the Skiff Service platform, Skiff Store and Skiff-enabled devices. Skiff will sell and distribute newspapers, magazines, books, blogs and other content. Skiff gives periodical publishers tools to maintain their distinct visual identities, build and extend relationships with subscribers, and deliver dynamic content and advertising to a range of dedicated e-readers and multipurpose devices."

9 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Publisher friendly? by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Translates to: Screw the authors & screw the customers.

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    1. Re:Publisher friendly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly what I thought. As a customer, why do I want a platform that caters, not to me or the author, but to the publisher?

    2. Re:Publisher friendly? by Chyeld · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Executive Summary: We are out of our frigging minds and don't realize this is going to bomb faster than the orginal DIVX.

    3. Re:Publisher friendly? by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Translates to: Screw the authors & screw the customers.

      Are you so sure? Alienating customers won't help publishers any, since they're where the money comes from. I'm sure the prevailing slashdot assumption will be that publishers somehow fail to realize this, but I doubt that. The fact is, both parties in any business transaction are participating for their own benefit; that doesn't preclude rational self interest, i.e. providing value, too.

      So here is why this might work: Skiff eliminates a middleman, namely Amazon. Thus consumers could end up paying less, while publishers (and even writers) get more. You can go on all you like about how evil and stupid publishers are, but they're already part of the process; the only difference is, no Amazon. What if Skiff ends up a lot like Kindle, but with a lower price for professionally written and edited content?

  2. Crash by hackus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and BURN baby....burn!

    Hey I got a great idea? Lets make everyone pay for a crummy E-Reader at high prices PLUS make them pay for the book subscriptions, PLUS sell advertising to make the reading even less enjoyable after the user gets the bill!!

    PLUS we can just kill the book we sell, so the customer can never have a copy and of course, we can sell the same book to them twice!!!

    -Signed...your average everday greedy American Corporate Scum.

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  3. great for publi$her$? by L3370 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    More competition and new products entering the E-reader market? Awesome. I love it

    If they think I'm still going to pay the price of a hardcover book for nothing but a digital copy that can be revoked from my reader, I'M STILL NOT BUYING THIS JUNK.

  4. Welcome to the land of fail... by BrianRaker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wish them luck in this venture... they're going to need it with a market that already has widely accepted semi-user-friendly devices (Amazon Kindle, Sony eReader, etc).

    Also, haven't they learned their lesson already in other markets? Publisher (content-owner) friendly rarely ever is accepted by the marketplace as it wasn't designed with the end user (the people PAYING for this "service").

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  5. Re:Easy for publishers? by NoYob · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't see any reason why a paperback version of a book should cost less than an electronic version.

    Me neither.

    The Kindle device has a life of what? Five years? Ten, maybe if its taken care of really well? And all the kindle books are tied to that device - are they not? That paperback book will be around for decades after that Kindle has had to be thrown into the garbage - along with all those expensive Kindle version of those books.

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  6. Sounds nice... by calmofthestorm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    targeted ads, complete publisher control. Where can I pick mine up, and how much will I get paid per month to use it?

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