• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 5, 2010

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas got a first look at Hearst's Skiff e-reader, long the subject of speculation since the magazine publisher first revealed its plans for the device early last year.

The device is produced by an independent company called Skiff, LLC, in collaboration with Hearst, Time Inc., Conde Nast, Meredith and News Corp. It is intended to become an electronic platform for media and personal content, as well as advertising, specially tailored for magazine and newspaper content -- an area where other e-readers are said to fall short.

The e-reader, which must compete with a host of competitors from Amazon, Sony, Plastic Logic and others, got generally positive reviews, winning praise for its large, thin "e-Paper" touchscreen and high resolution: a quarter-inch thin, 11.5-inches on the diagonal, it has a resolution of 1,200 by 1,600 pixels (for a total 1.92 million) and weighs less than one pound.

The "e-Paper" materials consists of a metal foil produced by LG Display, which allows Hearst to dispense with a glass shield on the display. It also consumes a relatively small amount of power, lasting up to a week without needing to be recharged.

Skiff is designed to receive a variety of content via Sprint's 3G wireless service as well as WiFi, which users can navigate via the interactive display, including magazines, newspapers and books. It can also store personal documents.

According to Hearst, the device will be sold at over 1,000 Sprint retail locations and online at Sprint.com, among other venues. No details on the price of the device or content subscriptions had been made available so far.

The Skiff device will run on a new Skiff e-reader service developed by Skiff, LLC and Hearst, which will also be compatible with smartphones and other mobile devices as a downloadable app. Like the device itself, the e-reader service is designed to deliver print-focused media content in a configuration that is intuitive and easy to use for readers and also conducive to advertising.

It allows publishers to update content dynamically; presumably, it offers advertisers measurability comparable to other mobile devices and media apps. As of December, Skiff LLC had deals to incorporate a Skiff "chip" into Netbooks and e-readers from EnTourage Systems, Spring Design and Plastic Logic.

Hearst first revealed plans to create an e-reader device in early 2009; in October it was further revealed to be cooperating with other major magazine and newspaper publishers to create a device compatible with multiple publishers' content. The project was led by Time Executive Vice President John Squires, Hearst EVP/GM John Loughlin, and Conde Nast President of Consumer Marketing Robert Sauerberg.

A recent study from Mediamark Research & Intelligence found that people who own electronic book readers are better educated and more affluent than the average American adult. 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.