Mediagazer: 75 Rock: A tower of power (Patricia Sellers/Fortune)

1:55 PM ET, March 23, 2011

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting Own Channel — The possibility that Glenn Beck will exit the Fox News Channel at the end of the year has prompted a big question in media circles: if he leaves, how will he bring his considerable audience with him? — Two of the options Mr. Beck has contemplated …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mixed Media, The Wire, mediabistro.com, Mediaite, The First Post, New York Observer, New York Magazine, Company Town, On Media's Blog, ThinkProgress, Inside Cable News, Poynter, The New Yorker Blog, DailyFinance and Deadspin

New York Times:

4 Times Journalists Held Captive in Libya Faced Days of Brutality — As the four of us headed toward the eastern gate of Ajdabiya, the front line of a desperate rebel stand against the advancing forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a car pulled up alongside. — “They're in the city!” the driver shouted at us.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Journalism.co.uk, Big News Network.com, National Review, CJR, The Wire, Poynter, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, Guardian, J-Source and The Daily Dish

Reuters:

How the NYT paywall could turn out to be a success — There's one aspect of the NYT paywall which hasn't got as much attention as it deserves — and that's the idea that the NYT will be able to charge higher CPMs for ads behind the paywall than it currently gets for ads on a free site.

Discussion: Epicenter

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
NY Times Asks Twitter to Shut Down Paywall Dodgers

Glynnis MacNicol / SAI:
Lincoln Is Offering “Smarter” Readers Free Access To NYT.Com For The Rest Of The Year

Discussion: The Wire and @scottkarp

Washington Post:

In Ishinomaki, news comes old-fashioned way: Via paper — Gallery: Massive rescue, cleanup efforts underway in Japan: After the earthquake and tsunami, entire towns in Japan are impossible to reach. But search-and-rescue teams are fanning out in what will be a lengthy, complex endeavor.

Discussion: On Media's Blog, bookforum.com, magCulture.com/blog and Editors Weblog

Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:

USA Today rewrites strategy to cope with Internet — McLEAN, Va. - USA Today, a newspaper created nearly 30 years ago to appeal to people who grew up watching television, is revising its formula to try to counter the Internet's threat to its survival. — The nation's second-largest newspaper …

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

New ranking combines print-digital reach of metro papers, reveals surprising winners — Which American newspaper reaches the most readers in its market if print and online audiences are combined? — That seems a fundamental question in an era of hybrid print/digital business models.

Discussion: LA Observed and The News About The News

Joshua Levine / Wall Street Journal:

Brand Anna — The editor of Vogue has always occupied the most powerful seat in the world of American fashion. But Anna Wintour's web of influential friends and allies has helped turn her into a global brand that transcends fashion. Photographs by Mario Testino

Samantha Critchell / Associated Press: WSJ. profile: The power of Anna Wintour

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: At Neon Tommy, the reporters are responsible for delivery too — The workings of USC Annenberg student-run news website illustrate the new reality for journalists. — A conversation this week in the offices of Neon Tommy, a USC student-run online news outlet, went something like this …

Discussion: smays.com and Poynter

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Adobe Pass Makes TV Everywhere Logins More Manageable — The pay TV industry is betting big on TV Everywhere, an initiative through which pay TV subscribers can get access to on-demand versions of their favorite channels online. But up until this point, the process for doing …

Discussion: paidContent, Broadcasting & Cable, Online Video News and Multichannel, more at Techmeme »

Mark Memmott / NPR:

Remembering Mo Nabbous, ‘The Face Of Libyan Citizen Journalism’ — A reporter who lost his life trying to tell the world about what Moammar Gadhafi's forces were doing to the people of Libya is remembered today on All Things Considered. — NPR's Andy Carvin talks about Mohammed Nabbous …

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Ad Spending Could Change With AT&T Deal — The advertising implications for the acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T will take some time to unfold. — Advertising for T-Mobile is created by the Seattle office of Publicis Worldwide, an agency that is owned by the Publicis Groupe of France.

Discussion: VentureBeat and rbr.com

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
T-Mobile's $412 Million Media Hole

Discussion: Deal Journal

David Kaplan / paidContent:

NBCU Refines Integrated Media Division With Promotions — NBC Universal (NSDQ: CMCSA), settling into life with Comcast, is continuing to refine the structure of its Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media division with a flurry of executive promotions and new additions.

Discussion: MediaPost

Peter Duhon / New York Observer:

A Talk With Vanity Fair's Larry Fink, Snapper of Drunken Starlets — What are the ethics, if there are any, of photographing a dead-drunk starlet? Try running that question by Larry Fink. A successful photographer of boxers, jazz musicians and the 1970s Studio 54 scene …

Discussion: The Corsair

Lara O'Reilly / New Media Age:

FT website to match pink paper — The Financial Times is to extend the use of the newspaper's pink colouring in a website redesign aimed at boosting paid subscription numbers. — The revamped FT.com site will show articles on a pink background - currently only the landing page is pink …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Magazines' New Rules for Counting Digital Sales — IPad Editions No Longer Need to Include Every Print Ad to Count Toward Circulation Guarantees — Magazines can now count iPad and other digital-edition sales toward their paid-circulation guarantees even if those digital versions don't include …

Discussion: Noted

Patricia Sellers / Fortune:

75 Rock: A tower of power — There's no sign in the lobby. There's no web page. There's no clue — until you arrive on the 23rd floor of 75 Rockefeller Plaza — what Pilot Group is. Sure, it's the private equity shop of Bob Pittman, former COO of AOL Time Warner (TWX) (AOL) (parent of Fortune's publisher).

Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:

Former NBC exec leads parents group's profanity crusade — During his 15-year career as an executive at NBC, Tim Winter was one of the people who helped decide what TV shows reached the viewing public. Now president of the Parents Television Council, Winter spends much of his time as a thorn in the side of his former peers.

Thanks:theptc

Erik Sherman / BNET:

AOL's Brewing Conflict: Brand Versus Journalism — Two weeks after AOL laid off 900 employees (and an untold count of freelance writers and editors), CEO Tim Armstrong yesterday sent an internal memo that targeted the company's media sites. He wrote that AOL would eliminate 30 of its separate sites …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Wire and FishbowlNY