Is Amazon's Kindle store about to lose a bunch of content? News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is making noises about breaking ties with Amazon over its pricing terms for Kindle books. That could be significant, given that News Corp. owns publishing giant HarperCollins, the Wall Street Journal and a bevy of other newspapers.

Here's a report that just came out of Dow Jones Newswires (also part of News Corp):

News Corp. (NWS) may break ties with Amazon (AMZN) over pricing terms for the Kindle e-reader, News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said Wednesday in a conference call, according to a report on Fox Business Network. Murdoch also said News Corp. is in talks with Sony Corp. (SNE) about making content available on that company's upcoming e-reader, which aims to challenge the Kindle.

Sony just announced it will soon start selling two new electronic readers, including a $199 version that would be significantly cheaper than Amazon's $299 Kindle.

Murdoch has grumbled in the past about Kindle and dropped hints of investing in a rival reader. It's part of a broader unease in the book and newspaper publishing industries about Amazon's terms for selling content through Kindle -- and the fact that Amazon is the dominant player in the emerging e-reader market (the publisher of the Dallas Morning News complained in a U.S. Senate hearing this May that Amazon wants a 70 percent cut of subscription revenue for Kindle editions of his newspaper).

Update: Here's what Murdoch had to say about Amazon and Kindle, in his own words (via Seeking Alpha transcript):

No, we are changing the price of the Journal on the Kindle and we will get a better share of the revenue, though I can't say that I'm satisfied. It's the final result of the [inaudible], but it will be a lot better. But it's not a big number and we're not encouraging it at all because we don't get the names of the subscribers. Kindle treats them as their subscribers, not as ours. And I think that will eventually cause a break between us.

He later said:

Apple is said to be coming out with a reader before the end of the year. Certainly Sony is doing that and we're in active discussions with them and they certainly accept that the subscribers would be our subscribers.

Murdoch is notoriously murky in his comments at times, but it seems like he's saying that the News Corp. negotiated with Amazon to keep more of its revenue from Wall Street Journal Kindle subscriptions, but Murdoch still doesn't think it's a great deal; and Murdoch is not happy with the fact that Amazon doesn't share the names of Wall Street Journal subscribers on Kindle.

It will be interesting to see if he actually dumps Kindle in favor of Apple's rumored tablet or the new Sony readers.

[Flickr photo via indio]

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