Hearst is giving a first look at its new Skiff Reader and the publisher is going with a bigger is better philosophy. The Skiff, designed for reading newspapers and magazines, sports an 11.5-inch screen (Amazon's larger-screen Kindle DX, by comparison, has a 9.7 inch display). No word on pricing yet, but the Skiff will be available "later this year" at more than 1,000 Sprint retail stores. More details and images below.

According to details released today, Skiff is just over a quarter inch thick, has touchscreen features, weighs about a pound, can last up to a week between charges, and can use Wi-Fi. The Skiff display isn't glass like many e-readers on the market today, but instead is made of a "thin, flexible sheet of stainless-steel foil" supplied by LG.

Hearst will preview Skiff at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, which is devoting quite a bit of space to e-readers and related technology this year. My colleague Todd Bishop will be there tracking some of the key announcements and demos.

Hearst is developing a related Skiff digital store, and is reportedly planning to offer newspaper and magazine publishers a better revenue split than what they can get through Kindle. Stay tuned for Apple's (rumored tablet) announcement.

[Via Engadget]