Magazines publishers unite

The venture that some have been calling a “Hulu for magazines” is now official (although it still has no name).

This morning, publishers Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc announced that they’re going to “develop open standards for a new digital storefront and related technology that will allow consumers to enjoy their favorite media content on portable digital devices.”

In layman’s terms, that means the magazine publishers are uniting to figure out how to best take advantage of the burgeoning eReader market, which has seen a plethora of new devices emerge in the past year. The end result will be a storefront, that much like Hulu has done for TV networks (minus CBS), will put magazines from competing publishers all under one roof.

The goal is obviously more revenue, which has been something that’s been hard to come by in the print publishing business for some time, with major magazines like Vibe and Gourmet being forced to shut down in the past year. Along those lines, the announcement indicates that the to-be-named service will offer some new advertising options, plus opportunities for eReader manufacturers.

Given there’s no name, no site, and no devices or software to speak of, it’s far too early to judge whether or not this represents the future of publishing or simply a desperate alliance that ultimately won’t do much to keep print publications afloat. Nonetheless, it’s another sign of the times in the ever changing old media business.