Five Partners working together to charge for online content

After long talks about monetizing online content companies are starting to make moves to collaborate on developing the appropriate combination of charging mechanisms. Paidcontent reports that:

“A much-discussed magazine consortium will be announced early next week (it looks like Tuesday at this point) with News Corp (NYSE: NWS). joining Conde Nast, Meredith (NYSE: MDP), Hearst and Time Inc.”. “Each is investing in the new company, which plans to create a new digital newsstand, and each will have two members on the board.”

We reported on a number of magazines that were showcasing their format for new magazine readers that are expected to come out.  This is also one of the main objectives of the consortium. It wants to: “Be ready for full-color devices with an application that renders publications “in beautiful form” and in “recognizable” form.”

According to the Guardian there are a number of other objectives for the consortium:

• Develop a platform that can enable that across multiple devices, operating systems and screens. 
• Develop a common digital storefront where consumers can easily make purchases and get universal access on any device as they buy digital products from their publisher.
• Work with advertisers to co-develop new advertising forms

The industry feels a strong need for a full colour magazine reader. Now there is the Joojoo (we’ll write about this shortly) and of course the industry is awaiting the Apple tablet with great anticipation. The consortium wants to take matters in their own hands and wants to create a device that is: “The publishers’ answer to the text-oriented Kindle promises to emphasize visuals, retaining the distinctive look of each publication. It also aims to incorporate videos, games and social networking along with a classic magazine layout that can be flipped through with the touch of a finger.” via 5 top publishers plan rival to Kindle format – Yahoo! News.