MUMBAI: In its bid to step up its content-led fight back against Amazon.com‘s ‘Kindle‘ electronic readers, Sony has tied up with 19 new newspaper and periodical partners for its Reader devices.

Immediately available online would be content from the Financial Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, with other titles following later, Sony said in a statement.
 
Sony‘s list of new partners will have US national and international brands such as the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor, metropolitan dailies such as the Denver Post and the San Jose Mercury News, The New York Review of Books and Barron‘s, two weekly titles.

Already many publishers have deals with Amazon but others including the Dallas Morning News, the Providence Journal and the New York Observer are not available on the ‘Kindle‘.

Sony has been eager to present itself as a more co-operative partner, willing to offer them a larger share of the revenues and more data about their customers‘ usage than they get from Amazon‘s market-leading device. 
 
Sony did not disclose what its new partners would charge but announced a separate deal on Thursday with three News Corp titles under which the Wall Street Journal will be available for $14.99 a month, MarketWatch.com for $10.99 and the New York Post for $9.99.

At present, Sony‘s Reader devices run no advertising, thus depriving publishers of one of the two revenue streams they enjoy in print. The publishing industry is hoping that future generations of the hardware will introduce a more balanced business model.

Users of Sony‘s 3G Reader daily edition will be able to download updated editions wirelessly but owners of the cheaper ‘Pocket‘ and ‘Touch‘ versions of the Reader will need to connect to their computer.