Next Issue Media, the digital publishing joint venture of Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time, is reported to be set to launch its own store to distribute products for Android devices, in order to take control of their distribution of content to users. While the store will launch with just two titles, the intention is to offer a “full lineup of titles” from its magazine publishing and newspaper partners – although there is no plan for it to become a fully-fledged store rivalling Android Market or Amazon’s anticipated entry into the market. The issue also remains that the companies will not be able to replicate their strategy for iOS devices, where Apple tightly controls the distribution ecosystem – including the iPad tablet.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the store will compete with several others that aggregate and sell publications for tablets, with Google also “trying to rally publishers around plans for its own newsstand for Android devices.” It was also suggested that Next Issue Media is looking to augment its content products with games and video related to publications, to provide a multimedia extension to the titles available. The company is also looking to benefit from the growth of Android-powered tablets, including planned or launched products from Dell, LG, Samsung and Motorola.

While the app store market is already crowded, and becomes more so as time progresses, some observers have suggested that focused, single-interest stores may thrive, by enabling customers to easily locate specific types of content and related products. There is also a benefit for developers in that these focused stores should make it easier to discover content, rather than competing with the “noise” generated by unrelated products. US company BloomWorlds is working to develop a “family friendly” Android app store.