Condé Nast, Hearst and Time Inc. Are Teaming Up To A Digital Magazine Joint Venture?

Apparently, 50 magazines (The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time, Esquire, Sports Illustrated,...) are close to joining forces that will form one of the biggest alliances among rival publishers ever.

Multiple platforms will be produced, one of them for Smart Phones (iPhone, Droid, BlackBerry,...) that will have a standard template for advertisers and readers.

The publishers want to create an online newsstand to give readers an easy way to get to electronic versions of their favorite magazines. It's being called the "iTunes for magazines".

So...what do you say? Will this work? Are they going to be able to monetize from their online content?