Jonathan Krim has been named acting editor of MarketWatch.com. Krim was most recently senior deputy managing editor of WSJ.com. He had also consulted with MarketWatch for the past 18 months.

“In this full-time role, Jonathan will be based in New York and lead the MarketWatch news team in achieving some very ambitious, internal journalistic and audience-development goals that we have set for ourselves in recent weeks, all part of a larger business growth plan for MarketWatch, the free Dow Jones markets and investor portal,” said Raju Narisetti, managing editor of WSJ.com, in a note to staffers.

Krim’s appointment is effective immediately. The full memo from Narisetti is after the jump.

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The war of the e-readers has already begun, and electronic companies are already gearing up for battle. While Amazon broke out as an early forerunner, threatening to turn all other devices into the Zune knockoffs to the Kindle’s iPod, Sony has a couple weapons in its own arsenal. They’ve managed to score an exclusive deal with News Corp. for a specialized version of The New York Post and MarketWatch.com. Now comes the news that 19 other publications — most of which were previously only available on Kindle — have struck partnerships with Sony’s e-reader as well, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. Even better for Sony, papers like The New York Observer, which don’t have deals with Amazon, have decided to sign on with Sony.

While these partnerships can only create increasing competition between the brands, it will come as a boon to consumers who will now have their pick of devices without the fear of losing content over their choice. With non-exclusive partnerships dominating the market, it will be up the electronic manufacturers to create the most user-friendly device in order to gain customers. Let the best e-reader win!

Read More: Sony ties deals with 19 content partners –Financial Times

Previously: News Corp. Pairs With Sony To Debut Digital New York Post

After all the recent rumors of Rupert Murdoch‘s talks with Microsoft over an exclusive search engine deal, the newest agreement announced by Murdoch’s News Corp. is actually with Sony.

News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal reported today that the company has entered into an agreement with Sony to provide an exclusive digital version of the New York Post through the tech company’s e-readers. Digital versions of the Journal, as well as a news summary from the paper and News Corp.-owned MarketWatch.com, will also be available for subscription by Sony e-reader users.

The Journal‘s news summary will cost $5 a month in addition to the $14.99 monthly fee for the digital version of the paper. The digital version of the paper is also available for the Amazon’s Kindle, but News Corp. execs told the Journal that Sony was offering “more favorable” financial terms than Amazon, which takes about 70 percent of subscription revenue.

The MarketWatch.com summary will cost subscribers $10.99 a month while the Post‘s digital version will be available for $9.99 monthly.

Newspaper publishers have looked to the Kindle as a way to save the industry, since e-reader owners are actually willing to pay for news. But it was only a matter of time before someone came along to challenge Amazon’s current hold on the market with a better product for reading newspapers. With better financial incentives for publishers and an updated device that offers new features like a touch screen, Sony looks to be giving Amazon a run for its money.

Sony E-Reader To Offer Journal Subscriptions –Wall Street Journal

Previously: Will Kindle Save Newspapers? Not Quite

News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal is pretty confident about the choices its made in regards to selling content on the Web. It was one of the first pubs to put its articles behind a pay wall, a system that’s now being seen as the only option by papers such as Newsday.

But when it comes to iPhone applications, The Wall Street Journal seemed surprisingly lackadaisical about making their users pay to read the news on their phones, by first launching a free version of its site as an app back in April.

Of course, all good things must end, and that includes Wall Street Journal‘s “free” iPhone content. In September, WSJ.com announced that it would be charging users either $2 or $1 a week (depending on whether readers were actually subscribed to the print version of The Wall Street Journal) for a subscription on their mobile device. Still though, the application would be “free” to download…you’d just have to pay to get any service on it.

This “offering you a free lunch and then taking it away” is not a new business plan, even for the Web. And today’s announcement of a free Wall Street Journal “MarketWatch.com” application, which lets you check your stocks, get real-time updates on the ticker index and has a customized feature for companies seems like just another gimmick to get smartphone users dependent on WSJ‘s online services before making them pay. On the other hand, several publications offer certain columns or content for free in the form of applications, without giving away the entire publication to download. Sort of a tiny taste to get your mouth wet, so you’ll buy the subscription cost at a monthly charge.

Either way, we wouldn’t get too comfortable with MarketWatch’s new free app. You might just end up paying more than you bargained for.