MobileRead Forums
Register Guidelines E-Books Today's Posts Search

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book General > News
Reload this Page Newscorp Buys Skiff From Hearst

Notices

Reply
Page 1 of 3 1 23
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 06-14-2010, 01:59 PM   #1
kjk
.
kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 3,408
Karma: 5647231
Join Date: Oct 2008
Device: never enough
Newscorp Buys Skiff From Hearst
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/News-C....html?x=0&.v=1

Quote:
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.
kjk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 02:19 PM   #2
m-reader
Guru
m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!m-reader rocks like Gibraltar!
 
Posts: 785
Karma: 100000
Join Date: Dec 2007
Device: Sony PRS-300. PRS-650, PRS-900, iPad2, Iconia A500, Irex Iliad (sold)
You beat me to it! Now this is getting interesting ... At least we can hope to see this device in the market.
m-reader is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 06-14-2010, 03:32 PM   #3
J. Strnad
Guru
J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.J. Strnad ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
J. Strnad's Avatar
 
Posts: 915
Karma: 3537194
Join Date: Feb 2009
Device: Kobo, Kindle 3, Paperwhite
Quote:
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.
J. Strnad is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 03:42 PM   #4
Nate the great
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Nate the great's Avatar
 
Posts: 12,375
Karma: 23555235
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: DC Metro area
Device: Shake a stick plus 1
Quote:
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.
Nate the great is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 03:52 PM   #5
speedtouch
eBook Newbie
speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.
 
Posts: 373
Karma: 1724
Join Date: Jun 2010
Device: Kobo Clara HD
Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad View Post
"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.
speedtouch is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 06-14-2010, 03:53 PM   #6
kjk
.
kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 3,408
Karma: 5647231
Join Date: Oct 2008
Device: never enough
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great View Post
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.
kjk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 03:54 PM   #7
speedtouch
eBook Newbie
speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.speedtouch once ate a cherry pie in a record 7 seconds.
 
Posts: 373
Karma: 1724
Join Date: Jun 2010
Device: Kobo Clara HD
Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk View Post
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.
speedtouch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:03 PM   #8
kjk
.
kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 3,408
Karma: 5647231
Join Date: Oct 2008
Device: never enough
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedtouch View Post
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.
kjk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:19 PM   #9
Shaggy
Wizard
Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Shaggy's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,293
Karma: 529619
Join Date: May 2007
Device: iRex iLiad, DR800SG
Quote:
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.
Shaggy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:27 PM   #10
cmdahler
Addict
cmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notescmdahler can name that song in three notes
 
Posts: 292
Karma: 24688
Join Date: Aug 2009
Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad
Quote:
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.
cmdahler is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:29 PM   #11
kjk
.
kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.kjk ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 3,408
Karma: 5647231
Join Date: Oct 2008
Device: never enough
Quote:
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.
kjk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:35 PM   #12
Shaggy
Wizard
Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Shaggy's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,293
Karma: 529619
Join Date: May 2007
Device: iRex iLiad, DR800SG
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler View Post
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.
Shaggy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:36 PM   #13
Shaggy
Wizard
Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Shaggy's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,293
Karma: 529619
Join Date: May 2007
Device: iRex iLiad, DR800SG
Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk View Post
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.
Shaggy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:44 PM   #14
Nate the great
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Nate the great's Avatar
 
Posts: 12,375
Karma: 23555235
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: DC Metro area
Device: Shake a stick plus 1
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler View Post
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.
Nate the great is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-2010, 04:56 PM   #15
Shaggy
Wizard
Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Shaggy ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Shaggy's Avatar
 
Posts: 4,293
Karma: 529619
Join Date: May 2007
Device: iRex iLiad, DR800SG
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great View Post
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?
Shaggy is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply
Page 1 of 3 1 23

« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Hearst just announced their ebook reader Nate the great News 6 12-04-2009 08:57 PM
Hearst to launch a wireless e-reader! Spectrum News 5 02-28-2009 02:03 PM
Hearst to launch wireless e-reader Ervserver News 5 02-27-2009 10:01 PM
Google buys YouTube Bob Russell Lounge 0 10-10-2006 08:44 AM
Amazon buys Booksurge and Mobipocket hacker News 5 04-17-2005 08:40 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:39 PM.

Contact Us - FAQ - Guidelines - Privacy - Top

MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.