Society and reading: E-books and newspapers will come to every home

Five major publishing houses of the USA – “Time”, “News Corporation”, “Condé Nast”, “Hearst” and “Meredith Corp” have announced an alliance to “prepare print publications for a new generation of digital devices”. "Our principal goal is to create a device which will allow to preserve the original design of newspapers and magazines, - said John Squires, the venture’s managing director. – The new digital initiative will support video and audio formats, and the pages will be turned with just a finger touch”.

The publishers are going to complete the work under the reading application by the beginning of 2010 and with its aid to begin the trade of electronic versions of their printed publications. This application will be available for laptops, mobile phones and e-readers. Other publishing houses will be also able to make use of the new device.

According to Rupert Murdoch, the Head of the “News Corporation”, “the new technology will become the major competitor of “Amazon Kindle”, the most popular e-reader in the USA. "Kindle" is a perfect device for books, however it has been little adapted for newspapers and magazines", - considers Murdoch.

The new application will let the publishing houses set their own prices on the electronic versions of magazines and newspapers. Specialists estimate that their readership totals to 144,6 million people.