Kindle Getting Competition From Cosmo Publisher

Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader will soon see competition from an unlikely place: the publisher of Cosmo.

Hearst Corp. is preparing to launch its own electronic reader, CNN Money reports, with the hope of bringing the magazine market into the palms of people’s hands. CNN cites “industry insiders” as saying Hearst’s reader will be more catered toward newspapers and magazines than books, boasting a “large-format screen” that will meet periodicals’ “reading and advertising requirements.”

As for any official comment, a Hearst exec said only that the company was “keenly interested” in the idea and expected the devices to be a “big part of [its] future.”

Interestingly, Hearst is also said to have invested in E Ink–the Boston-area company that creates the technology behind Amazon’s Kindle product as well as the Sony Reader. The same company produced a moving image on the cover of Esquire–also owned by Hearst–last year.