Mediagazer: Facebook's Rise Is a Big Deal for Media Sites. For the Rest of the Web, Not So Much. (Peter Kafka/MediaMemo)

11:40 PM ET, March 21, 2011

Top News:

That was quick: Four lines of code is all it takes for The New York Times' paywall to come tumbling down — The New York Times paywall is costing the newspaper $40-$50 million to design and construct, Bloomberg has reported. — And it can be defeated through four lines of Javascript.

Discussion: Mixed Media, Daring Fireball, Gizmodo, Associated Press, @chanders and Euri.ca Blog

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

NYTimes Paywall Limit To Extend Beyond Google To “All Major Search Engines” — more info (via: Wylio)When the details of the New York Times paywall/fence were announced on Thursday, Times PR representatives told press that it would be placing a five article a day limit on Google referrals, and only Google referrals.

Discussion: Techdirt

Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note: The NY Times: Un-Free At Last!

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
All Blog Links To The New York Times Will Be Freebies. This Could Get Ugly.

Discussion: THE DRUM, Seeking Alpha and The Atlantic Wire

David Carr / Media Decoder:
Paying for The Times at SXSW

Discussion: Poynter, The Atlantic Online, FishbowlNY, Guardian and New York Times

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
The Biggest Flaw in NYT Pay Plan: It's Backward-Looking

Discussion: ReveNews, Mediaite and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Thanks:mathewi

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note: NYTimes' “Fair” Prices

New York Times:

Libya Releases 4 Times Journalists — TRIPOLI, Libya — The Libyan government released four detained New York Times journalists Monday, six days after they were captured while covering the conflict between government and rebel forces in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. They were released into the custody of Turkish diplomats.

Agence France Presse:
Two AFP journalists missing in Libya since Friday

Discussion: nppa.org, Press Gazette, New York Observer and Associated Press

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Warning Shots? Glenn Beck To Poach Fox News Bigwig, Suggesting Big Plans — It would be fair to say that the relationship between Fox News and Glenn Beck is being...tested. A recent NY Times column that suggested that Fox News was considering life without its controversial star has led …

Discussion: Deadline.com, The Huffington Post, TVNewser, Inside Cable News, The Atlantic Wire and The Wire

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

If You Love Something, Set It Sort-Of Free: Condé Nast Mulling Reddit Spin-Off — Condé Nast, which bought Reddit five years ago, is considering spinning out the social news site. — The publisher would continue to own the site, but it's talking to investors about selling a stake.

Discussion: The Next Web

Ben Dowell / Guardian:

World Service to sign funding deal with US — Low six-figure investment will aim to help combat censorship of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China — The BBC World Service is to receive a “significant” sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking …

Discussion: Fast Company, Editors Weblog, New York Magazine and Media Network

Nikki Usher / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“News media are targeted but audiences are not”: Herbert Gans on multiperspectival journalism — Herbert Gans, a professor emeritus in Sociology at Columbia University, wrote perhaps the seminal book about news organizations. In Deciding What's News: A Study of CBS Evening News …

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

A Glossy Take on Disney — LOS ANGELES — Ask executives at Disney Publishing to explain why they are trying to build a children's subscription magazine business in the United States, and the answer will involve marketplace analysis this and business model that.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, The Wire, MediaPost and Canadian Magazines

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

What's Killing NPR — It's not the conservative attacks. It's the network's complete lack of a strategy to save itself. In this week's Newsweek, Howard Kurtz describes how NPR reporters are pointing fingers at their own management. — Steve Inskeep, A veteran National Public Radio correspondent …

Discussion: The Hill, The Daily and Media Matters for America

Ethan Klapper / mediabistro.com:

Meet ‘Producer Matthew’ Keys: Aggregation Journalist — Uprising in Egypt. Earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Missile strikes in Libya. — Major news has broken in every corner of the world during the past few weeks. In that time, Matthew Keys has proven himself to be a must follow for the latest from these hot spots.

Ben LaMothe / 10,000 Words:

Why Newspapers Need Community Managers — The term “community manager” has been around for a while. However with the growth of social media in business, it's turned into more of a buzz term. Do a search online for “Community Manager Job” and you'll get hundreds, if not thousands, of results.

Discussion: eBookNewser

New York Observer:

Foster Kamer Named Senior Editor of ‘The New York Observer’ — Foster Kamer, currently the online news and features editor for Esquire, will join the staff of The New York Observer as a senior editor and Wall Street reporter. — Prior to Esquire, Mr. Kamer reported on media, culture …

Discussion: http://www.fosterkamer.com/, Runnin' Scared and FishbowlNY

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Slip and slide: Newspaper industry increases production of scary charts — You may have come across the chart-making work of blogger Michael DeGusta last month, when he recrunched some numbers on the music business that illustrated that industry's financial decline.

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

Why Media Companies Will Feel the Pinch if AT&T and T-Mobile Seal the Deal — Over Time, Merged Telecom Will Lower Spending, but Ad Battle With Verizon, Sprint Could Be Boon for Marketplace — When the No. 3 U.S. ad spender, AT&T, makes a bid to acquire a marketer that spends $500 million-plus domestically …

Discussion: Media Money …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Facebook's Rise Is a Big Deal for Media Sites. For the Rest of the Web, Not So Much. — Question: Is Google's influence on other Web sites shrinking as Facebook grows? Or is the search giant more important than ever? — Answer: Yes. — Confused? Sure you are.

Discussion: Search Engine Land and FM Blog

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Foreign journalists used as human shields outside Gadhafi compound? — As Western forces wage a unified attack on key targets of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi, the international community remains concerned that the unhinged strongman may put civilians in harm's way as a defense mechanism.

Discussion: Fox News, FishbowlNY, The Huffington Post and Inside Cable News