News Corp. acquires ereader platform Skiff

Media giant News Corp. announced an agreement with Hearst Corporation to acquire Skiff, a digital content platform optimized to deliver premium journalism efforts across smartphones, tablets, netbooks and ereader devices. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to News Corp., the Skiff platform is optimized for translating newspaper and magazine content to portable device screens, retaining signature design elements and allowing publications to maintain their brand identity.

Hearst introduced Skiff in late 2009, touting an ereader unit featuring an 11.5-inch touchscreen with resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels--the non-glass display is instead manufactured from a thin, flexible sheet of stainless-steel foil, developed in conjunction with LG Display. In addition to books, periodicals and digital content purchased via the accompanying Skiff Store, the device also houses users' personal and work documents. Despite the announcement of a 3G connectivity deal with U.S. operator Sprint, the Skiff Reader has yet to surface at retail.

In a related story, News Corp. named Jon Hausman president of its digital journalism initiatives. Housman previously served as a strategic advisor to the company, directing projects at Fox Entertainment Group, Fox Interactive Media and NDM. News Corp. additionally announced an investment in Journalism Online LLC, a venture dedicated to enabling publishers to collect revenue from their readers.

For more on the Skiff acquisition:
- read this release

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