E-reader Conference Will Spotlight Hearst Venture

By: E&P Staff At the second European E-reading Conference, Oct. 1-2 in Paris, FirstPaper President Gil Fuchsberg will discuss the activities of the Hearst venture that will soon bring its e-readers to the market. The conference also will present e-reader trials carried out by The New York Times, Les Echos and NRC Handelsblad, and examine recent developments in e-reader advertising, distribution and technical standards.

The conference is organized by WAN-IFRA, which has invested in e-reading research and testing, and participated in the development of e-reading technologies since 2003. Program and registration details are at www.ifra.com/ereading_europe.

WAN-IFRA Emerging Digital Platforms and Business Development Director Stig Nordqvist will share the latest technological developments at the laboratories of companies working on e-readers of the future.

The Hearst Group helped finance the E-Ink start-up, and its research in the area of electronic ink, beginning in 1998. A decade later, electronic paper displays, including E Ink Corp.'s electronic ink, equip Amazon Kindle, iRex Technologies' iLiad and Digital Reader 1000s, Bookeen Cybook, Sony Reader and other major e-readers now available.

Hearst's FirstPaper is about to introduce its own reader, reportedly a wireless, large-format device adapted for newspapers and magazines. The company has released no details.

WAN-IFRA is the organization of the world's news publishers, representing more than 18,000 titles, 15,000 Web sites and 3,000-plus companies in more than 120 countries. It was created by the merger of the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers and the news publishing research and service organization IFRA, Darmstadt, Germany.