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Sony’s fight back against Amazon.com gains momentum
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.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
