'USA Today,' 'FT' Sign on as Plastic Logic's First Newspaper Content Providers

By: E&P Staff USA Today and the Financial Times have signed on to be the first newspapers providing content when Plastic Logic's eReader debuts next year, the company said Monday.

Plastic Logic said it also reached agreement with LibreDigital to provide newspaper replicas to the forthcoming Plastic Logic Reader. Plastic Logic also inked agreements with Ingram Digital for ebooks and Zinio for emagazines.

The Plastic Logic Reader features is thin reader about the size of an 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch pad of paper that the company says weighs less than many print magazines. It uses a plastic electronics display.

Plastic Logic also announced Monday a partnership with Fictionwise, the big econtent retailer, to run its Web store of digital content from newspapers, magazines, trade journals, blogs, ebooks and other sources.

Plastic Logic said it plans to make its Reader available in trials and pilots with partners and key customers during the second half of 2009, followed by widespread commercial availability in 2010.

"Newspaper and econtent fans will love the portable, durable and full-page format of the Plastic Logic Reader," LibreDigital President and CEO Russell P. Reeder said in a statement. "Working with Plastic Logic, we can deliver digital content on-demand to its content store, ensuring that people have access to hundreds of the world's top newspapers and econtent from the day they turn on their new devices."

USA Today.com Publisher Jeff Webber called the product "an exciting new platform for publishers to reach new and existing readers."

FT CEO John Ridding said the partnership with Plastic Logic will be part of the paper's digital distribution strategy to "offer our customers the opportunity to consume FT content across any channel that suits them."