Publisher News Corp has made investments in digital publishing companies, showing an unwillingness to sit on its hands and let companies like Apple and Amazon dictate the rules of the e-publishing game.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned company announced it has purchased Skiff, the e-reading platform developed by Hearst Corporation, and tipped funds into Journalism Online, a venture designed to ensure revenues can be collected from online readers.
Skiff delivers news content to tablets, smartphones, e-readers and netbooks. Hearst developed both a publishing platform and an eReader device, but News Corp only purchased the software platform.
The firm is likely to incorporate the software into its own digital publishing initiative, All Things Digital commentator Peter Kafka said.
News Corp chief digital officer Jon Miller explains that Skiff and Journalism Online “serve as key building blocks in our strategy to transform the publishing industry and ensure consumers will have continued access to the highest quality journalism.”
Murdoch is keen to cash-in on the rise of digital publishing, but wants to charge more for online content.
Last month he told investors that his company was in “final discussions with a number of publishers, device makers and technology companies about digital delivery of news and entertainment,” The New York Times said.