News Corporation has made its latest move to charge readers for digital content by investing in a company that develops paid content models for publishers and acquiring e-reader platform Skiff which delivers “visually appealing layouts” of content to tablets, smartphones, e-readers such as Kindle and netbooks.
News Corporation is the globe’s leading publisher of English-language newspapers and their digital brands, with operations in the U.K., the United States, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and across Europe and Asia.
The Newspaper and Information section in the U.K., News International publishes four national newspapers. (two of which, the Times and Sunday Times online) are close to becoming subscription only.
These two deals are “key building blocks” in the company’s strategy to transform publishing with pay models.
News Corporation has also invested in Journalism Online, which has a multi-faceted e-commerce platform, which enables newspapers, magazines and online-only publishers to charge for content. Publishers can select their own business models and pricings.
I have not been able to get information about the financial details around the two deals as they were not disclosed.
We will just have to wait and see what this means for the UK online publishing industry.
Original source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/15/news-corp-skiff
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