According to Fortune magazine's Friday reports, Hearst Corp intends launching a wireless electronic reader with a large-format screen this year - the proposed device would be big enough to meet the outlining and advertising requirements of newspapers and magazines.

The e-reader, meant for viewing the newspapers and magazines of the publisher, indicates a kind of experimentation that can be considered crucial for hitting upon a business model to contend in the age of the content-free Internet.

Hearst's foray into the e-reader market comes on the lines of Amazon's Kindle, which has spelled success for the company. Though Hearst's proposed offering will be similar to the Kindle in terms of an electronic ink display and low power consumption, it have a bigger screen in comparison to the Kindle's paperback book size screen.

In addition, Hearst's e-reader can hit the mainstream market - which has been a far cry for Kindle with its somewhat high price tag - if it includes a multi-year subscription to the publisher's newspapers and magazines inclusive in the cost of the e-reader.

In the opinion of analyst Michael McGuire, of Gartner's media consulting business, an added plus for the Hearst e-reader would be a much-required Web browser. McGuire said that Hearst should make the gadget so persuasive "that people say that's how they'll want to consume newspapers in the future!"