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Old 06-14-2010, 01:59 PM   #1
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Newscorp Buys Skiff From Hearst
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/News-C....html?x=0&.v=1

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News Corporation today announced that it has acquired Skiff, LLC, Hearst Corporation’s e-reading platform designed to deliver premium journalism to tablets, smartphones, e- readers and netbooks. The Company also announced an investment in Journalism Online LLC, the venture dedicated to enabling newspapers, magazines and online-only publishers of quality content to collect revenue from their online readers. The financial terms of both agreements were not disclosed.
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Old 06-14-2010, 02:19 PM   #2
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You beat me to it! Now this is getting interesting ... At least we can hope to see this device in the market.
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Old 06-14-2010, 03:32 PM   #3
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The Company also announced an investment in Journalism Online LLC, the venture dedicated to enabling newspapers, magazines and online-only publishers of quality content to collect revenue from their online readers.
"Quality content." And we're letting Rupert Murdoch decide what qualifies?

I'm sure it will be as fair and balanced as, say, Fox News.
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Old 06-14-2010, 03:42 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by m-reader View Post
You beat me to it! Now this is getting interesting ... At least we can hope to see this device in the market.
Maybe not. A couple different sources have said that News Corp didn't want the hardware, just the company.
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Old 06-14-2010, 03:52 PM   #5
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"Quality content." And we're letting Rupert Murdoch decide what qualifies?

I'm sure it will be as fair and balanced as, say, Fox News.
Judging from the success of Fox News I think Mr. Murdoch has a pretty good eye for quality content.
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Old 06-14-2010, 03:53 PM   #6
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Maybe not. A couple different sources have said that News Corp didn't want the hardware, just the company.
Yeah:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/me...ader/19515560/

Quote:
Actually, no. It turns out the Skiff device itself isn't part of this deal. "We have no plans at this time to get into the hardware business," a News Corp. spokeswoman tells DailyFinance. "We acquired Skiff because of its publishing platform."


It's not clear what will become of the device itself, but it appears that Hearst will seek to sell it in separate deal.
Curious as to what stage that Skiff hardware was at up to now...we may never know.
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Old 06-14-2010, 03:54 PM   #7
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Curious as to what stage that Skiff hardware was at up to now...we may never know.
That's too bad. More eReader hardware competition would be great.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:03 PM   #8
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That's too bad. More eReader hardware competition would be great.
Yeah, the Skiff was interesting because it was pretty unique-it looked like a newspaper from the future.

But, I think come Christmas season this year, we will see a lot of eReader hardware competition, even without it.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:19 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by kjk View Post
Yeah:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/me...ader/19515560/



Curious as to what stage that Skiff hardware was at up to now...we may never know.
That's interesting, considering Hearst basically said the same thing back at CES (I think). I don't remember the exact quote (there are threads around here somewhere about it), but it was along the lines of "We don't really want to be in the device business, we're just making the Skiff as a means to show off our content platform. We're hoping somebody will buy the technology from us".

It sounds like the Skiff will pretty much just disappear at this point.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:27 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by kjk View Post
Yeah:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/me...ader/19515560/



Curious as to what stage that Skiff hardware was at up to now...we may never know.
That hardware was just vaporware. I'd bet they stopped work on it the day the iPad was announced. A big company like Hearst or Fox isn't going to give a crap about developing some uberexpensive reader of which they'll only be able to sell a few thousand units to rabid must-have-eink-or-nothing fanatics. These corporations are both in the content-delivery business. As long as someone else is making the device, they're not going to waste any capital on R&D. The Skiff Reader would almost certainly have cost several hundred dollars per unit at a minimum. No way that would have sold well enough in the general marketplace next to the iPad and other upcoming Android devices to even recoup R&D.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:29 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by Shaggy View Post
That's interesting, considering Hearst basically said the same thing back at CES (I think). I don't remember the exact quote (there are threads around here somewhere about it), but it was along the lines of "We don't really want to be in the device business, we're just making the Skiff as a means to show off our content platform. We're hoping somebody will buy the technology from us".

It sounds like the Skiff will pretty much just disappear at this point.
You mean this quote?
Quote:
"We want to lead by example with some cool devices and then get the hell out as fast as possible," said Skiff Chief Marketing Officer Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:35 PM   #12
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These corporations are both in the content-delivery business. As long as someone else is making the device, they're not going to waste any capital on R&D.
Which is what they've been saying all along.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:36 PM   #13
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You mean this quote?
Yep, that's the one. Still kind of unbelievable they would actually state it that bluntly. Makes you wonder how they were ever planning on selling any after making that statement.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:44 PM   #14
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That hardware was just vaporware. I'd bet they stopped work on it the day the iPad was announced. A big company like Hearst or Fox isn't going to give a crap about developing some uberexpensive reader of which they'll only be able to sell a few thousand units to rabid must-have-eink-or-nothing fanatics. These corporations are both in the content-delivery business. As long as someone else is making the device, they're not going to waste any capital on R&D. The Skiff Reader would almost certainly have cost several hundred dollars per unit at a minimum. No way that would have sold well enough in the general marketplace next to the iPad and other upcoming Android devices to even recoup R&D.
Not according to Sprint. I was told this morning (before the sale) that Skiff-Sprint launch is still on for this year.
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Old 06-14-2010, 04:56 PM   #15
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Not according to Sprint. I was told this morning (before the sale) that Skiff-Sprint launch is still on for this year.
Makes me wonder how that's going to work since both News Corp and Hearst have said that they don't want the hardware.

Was this someone at Sprint feeding you the corporate PR line, or somebody that you know/trust?
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