Mediagazer: Who is Alexander Lebedev? — LONDON - Alexander Yevgenievich Lebedev … (John Reynolds/Media Week)

2:05 PM ET, March 26, 2010

Top News:

BBC:

Times website to charge from June — The Times and Sunday Times newspapers will start charging to access their websites in June, owner News International (NI) has announced. — Users will pay £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription.

Jennifer Howze / Times of London:

The Times and Sunday Times websites to charge from June — Alexi Mostrous, Media Editor, and Francesca Steele — The Times and The Sunday Times will start charging for their websites from June, it was confirmed today. — News International, the newspapers' parent company …

Discussion: PC World, Guardian and Editors Weblog

Elizabeth Barrett / Press Association:

Users to pay £2 a week to read Times online — Customers will be charged £2 a week to read The Times and The Sunday Times online from June, News International announced today. — Both titles will launch new websites in early May, separating their digital presence …

Discussion: The Next Web, Digital Trends, Editor and Publisher, Search Engine Watch and nma.co.uk

Hollywood Reporter:

e5 CEO: ‘No truth’ to Nikki Finke claim — In a blog post Thursday on Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke wrote, “... in early December 2009, the new owners of The Hollywood Reporter approached me about becoming the trade's new editor-in-chief. In late January 2010, they made me a very lucrative financial offer.”

Nikki Finke / Deadline.com:

Here's The Hollywood Reporter Offer To Me — As you know, I responded early yesterday to some inaccurate showbiz website's rumor-mongering. I revealed that, in early December, the new owners of The Hollywood Reporter approached me about becoming editor-in-chief.

John Reynolds / Media Week:

Who is Alexander Lebedev? — LONDON - Alexander Yevgenievich Lebedev, the new proprietor of The Independent and the Independent on Sunday, likened by colleagues to a chess grandmaster, is famously difficult to read. — Alexander Lebedev: the new owner of The Independent and Independent on Sunday

Discussion: Guardian, Media News and Brand Republic

Peter Kirwan / Wired.co.uk:
Why Lebedev's Indy should go digital

Discussion: Media Money, malcolm coles, Economist, Guardian and paidContent

Daniel Farey-Jones / Media Week:
From £665m to £1: The changing shape of Britain's …

Discussion: Times of London

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

CW to Double Ads in Web Shows — Seeking to mine a growing audience for TV shows online, The CW Network is taking a route that other broadcasters have avoided: putting as many ads in Web versions of its shows as it airs on TV. — The U.S. network, a joint venture of CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc. …

Discussion: Online Video News

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

What the WSJ's iPad Price Says About the iPad — The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that it will set monthly iPad subscriptions as $17.99. This is what we in the biz know as cojones. If you look up a print or online subscription today (I own neither) you find the WSJ offer less …

Discussion: industry.bnet.com

Kevin Allocca / TVNewser:

New Anderson Cooper Talk Show Specials? — NY Post's Cindy Adams mentioned this little note about Anderson Cooper at the bottom of her Page Six article this week: “CNN adding a nightly talk show for Anderson Cooper?? Eclectic-type guests? It's what I'm hearing.”

Discussion: Mediaite and TVWeek.com

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:

Spotify Online Music Site Targets U.S. Start in Third Quarter — Spotify, a virtual digital jukebox and Europe's largest legal online music site, aims to start U.S. operations in the third quarter. — The Stockholm-based company, which has 7 million users in Europe, is in talks …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Epicenter, GigaOM, Gizmodo, Mashable! and New York Magazine

Cristine Russell / CJR:

From Gumshoe to Google Wave — Investigative journalism goes multimedia — CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—While investigative journalism still requires old-school skills like stakeouts, meetings with confidential sources, and painstaking scrutiny of documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests …

Discussion: Writing / Editing

Nikki Finke / Deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Fox Reups Kevin Reilly — I've learned Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly's new deal just closed. His new deal will keep in place for 3 more years. His contract wasn't up until July, but Fox Broadcasting Co wanted to lock him in early as because of all the TV hits he's generating …

Discussion: Company Town

Adrian Holovaty / The EveryBlock Blog:

New EveryBlock city: Portland — Today, we've launched a new EveryBlock city: Portland, Oregon. — Portland has consistently been one of the most voted-for cities in our homepage poll, so we've always figured it was only a matter of time before we added it.

Discussion: WebNewser and Lost Remote

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

Jimmy Dolan Pulls Out of Village Voice After Dick Joke, Or The Most Expensive Blog Post of All Time — We now know the yearly value of a dick joke: $20,800. A company owned by Jimmy Dolan, Cablevision CEO and new owner of Gothamist, has pulled a $400/week ad from the Village Voice after it joked about his penis.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and FishBowlNY

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

How Apple Is Dogfighting To Control Your News — Apple's iPad could make it the king of old media, arbiter of taste and technology alike. So magazines and newspapers have begun a series of countermoves that could turn the quietest dogfight in media into the most vicious.

Discussion: TomsTechBlog.com

Roc / Media is a Plural:

Union Busting, Bloomberg Sale Looming at ABC News? — Turmoil continues at troubled ABC News. Morale among employees was already low after president David Westin's recent announcement that their ranks are to be decimated as part of a “new digital day.” — It plunged even further following …