• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 8, 2009

On Tuesday, four leading U.S. magazine publishers announced the long-anticipated debut of an independent joint venture to create a shared publishing solution for digital versions of their content.

The virtual retail operation -- which brings together Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith and Time Inc. -- will focus on formulating standards that allow publishers to create and deliver digital editions of magazines, newspapers and other text-focused products to mobile devices, including the new generation of e-readers from Amazon, Sony and Dynamic Logic.

News Corp., which publishes several major newspapers in the U.S., is also participating in the consortium.

In pursuit of this goal, the venture has four immediate objectives: creating a feature-rich reading application compatible with a wide range of publication styles; an associated publishing platform compatible with various mobile devices, operating systems and screen sizes; a digital storefront allowing readers to choose the titles they want; and options for interactive advertising.

In addition to publications from the venture partners, the platform will be open to other publishers as well, offering consumers greater choice and advertisers greater scale.

Time Inc.'s John Squires, who is the interim managing director of the joint venture, stated: "For the consumer, this digital initiative will provide access to an extraordinary selection of engaging content products, all customized for easy download on the device of their choice, including smartphones, e-readers and laptops."

Over the last year, there has been a surge of interest in e-readers among consumers and publishing industry executives; in fact, several of the participants in the joint venture are developing their own proprietary e-reader technology, in coordination with the joint venture itself.

Conde Nast said it is developing e-reader software based on Adobe AIR for its big titles, beginning with Wired, while Hearst is touting Skiff, a new device and software platform for viewing digital content on various portable devices.

Recently, newspaper publisher McClatchy unveiled plans to introduce Kindle-compatible editions of five newspapers: The Sacramento Bee, Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Anchorage Daily News and Raleigh's News & Observer.

Research outfits are also scrambling to get a handle on the demographics of the new device owners. Two weeks ago, Mediamark Research and Intelligence released the results of a study that found people who own electronic book readers are better educated and more affluent than the average American adult.

Overall, 2.1 million American adults own an electronic book reader, according to MRI's estimate, with a gender distribution that somewhat favors men (56.3%) over women (43.7%). Adults ages 35-54 are the most likely age cohort to own an e-reader, with a 20% greater probability than the general population.

MRI also found that e-reader owners are 11% more likely to own their own home, 87% more likely to have an annual household income over $100,000, and 111% more likely to have a bachelor's or post-graduate degree. In keeping with their tech-savvy reputation, MRI also found they are more likely to be heavy Internet users.