A new touchscreen device unveiled at last week's Consumer Electronics Show, the Skiff Reader, could offer a much needed boost for the newspaper sector.
The product was developed by Skiff, which belongs to the Hearst group of companies, and is the first e-reader designed especially for accessing digital newspaper and magazine content.
It has a screen measuring 11.5 inches, which is significantly bigger than rival e-readers from the likes of Sony and Amazon, according to the Guardian.
The Skiff Reader has already attracted the interest of several major players in the global newspaper sector. Skiff is in talks with several organisations over possible deals and says it has already formed agreements with others.
While Skiff has not yet divulged the details of its plans to share revenue with publishers, it is believed that the terms could be favourable towards the newspaper industry's aim to reverse the trend of declining income seen in recent years.
A recent Harris Interactive survey suggested that while 81 per cent of US consumers read a newspaper at least once a month, 77 per cent would not pay to access newspaper content through normal web channels.
"We think publishers deserve the majority of the revenue from both advertising and content," Gil Fuchsberg of Skiff comments.
"Publishers have to take control of their own fate. To have a say in the value chain requires more than just creating content."
