Today in Connected Consumer
News Corp.’s long-term strategy for digital newspaper and content distribution became a little clearer this week with a pair of deals. First, it bought the Skiff digital publishing platform from Hearst, but notably did not buy the Skiff e-reader, the flexible tablet-like device the Hearst-backed New York startup has been developing for the past two years. It also made an investment in Journalism Online, the web-based subscription and syndication platform started by Steven Brill. What the moves seem to add up to is a strategy for web-based, rather than device-based, digital distribution, which could put it at odds with Apple and Amazon.
