(Wall Street Journal) — The country’s largest magazine publishers are gearing up to launch their own service for distributing digital publications on tablets, competing head-on with technology companies they’ve relied on to distribute their apps to date. More than a year after it was first announced, Next Issue Media, a joint-venture of five media companies, will launch in the next few months, Morgan Guenther, NIM’s chief executive, said in an interview this week. Mr. Guenther, the former president of TiVo Inc., said that NIM will likely go live with two titles from its four magazine owners: Time Inc., Condé Nast, Hearst Corp. and Meredith Corp. Mr. Guenther said it will have added a “full-lineup” of titles, including newspapers, from its owners by the summer. The offerings could include versions of newspapers sold by News Corp, the fifth member of the consortium.
