For all the rumors surrounding digital newsstands from Apple and Google, Yahoo beat both of them to the punch with the unveiling of its new Livestand digital newsstand for tablets and smartphones today.
Livestand is slated for launch on the iPad and Android-based tablets in the first half of this year and will initially feature personalized digital content from Yahoo websites including Flickr, Yahoo! Finance and omg!
Eventually, Yahoo will open Livestand to magazine publishers and expand to smartphones, computers and televisions as it seeks to expand its presence on wireless devices, said Blake Irving, Yahoo's chief product officer.
Irving emphasized the advertising potential of tablets, saying the information about users stored on the devices could improve advertising analytics and personalization.
"We see tablets as a catalyst that will allow ad dollars to shift from TV and print to digital," Irving said. "The PC is a great place to advertise, but you don't curl up with the PC. The tablet is something you can sit on a couch with - you can lean back with it; you can curl up with it. Brands can finally match the intimacy that magazines brought to audiences."
The company declined to disclose its magazine partners for Livestand's launch later this year. Irv Henderson, vice president of product development at Yahoo, said that the platform would only be open to select partners in the short term, but the company expected to make Livestand "open to everyone" in the long term.
"We see a future where two people in a garage can publish a magazine," Henderson said.
Apple already sells digital versions of magazines through iTunes, and rumors have circulated that the company is working to make its platform more appealing for magazine publishers. Google is also rumored to be interested in creating a digital newsstand for its Android operating system.