The WSJ reports on News Corp. joining “a consortium of magazine companies that are working on creating a digital store and common technology and advertising standards to sell their titles on electronic readers, mobile devices and other digital devices.

“The new venture is likely to be announced next week, according to people familiar with its plans, though it will be longer before the project is up and running. It will be owned jointly by the five participating companies, which in addition to News Corp. are Time Warner Inc.’s Time Inc., Conde Nast Publications Inc., Hearst Corp. and Meredith Corp.”

I’ve written before on why such an ‘iTunes model’ isn’t as easy a route as it may appear, but it is a step up from the basic paywall model. If they can make it convenient enough or include features worth paying for – rather than focusing blindly on the value of their ‘content’ – then there may be something in it.

UPDATE: PaidContent has more detail on the project.