Yahoo has debuted Livestand, which it positions as a digital newsstand for personalized content that will be monetized via a mix of ad-support and subscriptions on various connected devices.

Launching first for tablets, Livestand from Yahoo is designed to let publishers and advertisers distribute content across tablets, mobile phones and other connected devices. Participating brands that Yahoo showcased in the presentation announcing the platform included Nike and Hewlett-Packard.

?What is critical for us is the experience on the device?an elegant, clean execution that is agnostic to platform and agnostic to form factor,? said Irv Henderson, vice president of product development at Yahoo Connected Life, Sunnyvale, CA. ?Livestand is an advancement on the expertise we?ve developed with HTML5 to create elegant product experiences.

?Don?t think of this as an app, think of this as a platform, a personalized digital newsstand,? he said. ?Brand and publishers can create conversations around the content to bring deeper engagement with consumers.

?As far as our connected devices strategy, our vision is being device and operating-system agnostic across multiple tablet operating systems, bringing this into smaller smartphone form factors, as well as PCs and TVs, making digital content available regardless of where you are or what you are doing.?

Livestand from Yahoo is slated to be available to consumers as iPad and Android tablet applications in the first half of 2011. Mobile phone and browser experiences will follow, as Yahoo delivers purpose-built experiences across a variety of mobile Web entry points.

The question remains: Will this revamped mobile strategy be enough to keep pace with competitors? (see story)

Clarification
The following examples, including Nike and HP, have not been announced as brand partners. Rather, the following images are mock-ups that Yahoo used during the presentation introducing Livestand.

The screengrabs that follow are what ads could look like within Livestand, not actual ad executions.

Livestand in the place where you live
Designed to initially distribute Yahoo?s digital content library ? including Sports, News, Finance and Flickr ? Livestand focuses on content personalization for the rapidly growing tablet and mobile phone categories.

The company plans to launch in the first half of this year with a combination of Yahoo publications and other third-party publications.

Livestand targets advertising, advertorial and editorial content based on time of day and consumers? interests and location.

The platform will enable social interactions to further expand content reach.

Yahoo touts Livestand as a digital interactive canvas for advertisers with targeting across various types of content and connected devices to reach and engage target audiences.

?We want to make advertising part of the content experience that is elegant and beautiful," Mr. Henderson said.

One of the initial content partners will be Surfer magazine, which will feature ads from brands such as Volcom.

HP has created a rich-media ad for Livestand to promote AirPrint, which enables printing from an iPad.

One of the biggest initial brand partners is Nike.

The footwear giant?s Nike Run publication will be featured prominently in Livestand. It will include the Nike+ dashboard, promotional videos and portals promoting Nike applications and products such as the GPS-enabled Nike+ SportWatch.

There will also be a section promoting Nike 6.0, an apparel line targeting fans of extreme sports such as surfing, wakeboarding, skiing and snowboarding.

?Ad executions will drive the product experience, but we are also planning for subscription-based models going forward,? Mr. Henderson said. ?We expect publishers to want that as an option to monetize their assets.

?Rich-media ad executions will be at the forefront, but we see models that will evolve very quickly around subscriptions, which is very important to publishers,? he said.

Final Take
Yahoo CMO Elisa Steele