Mediagazer: How did the New York Times manage to spend $40 million on its pay wall? (Philg/Philip Greenspun's Weblog)

6:50 PM ET, March 28, 2011

Top News:

How did the New York Times manage to spend $40 million on its pay wall? — Aside from wondering who will pay more than the cost of a Wall Street Journal subscription in order to subscribe to the New York Times, my biggest question right now is how the NY Times spent a reported $40-50 million writing the code …

Discussion: Jean-Baptiste Soufron and Techdirt

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Nisenholtz: Paywall part of New York Times strategy to ‘manage the link economy’ — The New York Times plans to implement its much-anticipated, much-debated paywall Monday at 2 p.m. ET. — Hours before, Martin Nisenholtz, the Times' senior vice president for digital operations …

Discussion: The Onion, Poynter, GeekWire, Nieman Journalism Lab, @nytdigitalsubs, mediabistro.com, New York Times, Media Life Magazine, WBUR, Editors Weblog, NetNewsCheck Latest and Monday Note

New York Times:

A Letter to Our Readers About Digital Subscriptions — Today, The New York Times is taking a major step forward as we introduce digital subscriptions in the United States and the rest of the world. Since we first announced our plan 11 days ago, we have heard from so many of you, our readers.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Daggle, Mashable!, NewsGrange, Ubergizmo, Gothamist and Cision, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

New York Times announces $1 trial for new subscription service — The New York Times, which is due to begin charging for online content later today, is offering a heavily discounted subscription rate of $0.99 on all of digital packages for the first four weeks.

Discussion: Tools, Mashable!, Runnin' Scared, Epicenter, @nytdigitalsubs, THE DRUM, Geekosystem, Poynter, Gearlog, Lifehacker, Digital Trends and MediaMemo, more at Techmeme »

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
The NYT Pay Plan's Most Dangerous Foe: Perception

Discussion: Poynter, SteveOuting.com, MediaPost, NetNewsCheck Latest, @nytdigitalsubs, PC Magazine, BNET, JSOnline, Tuned In, The Conversation, Felix Salmon, Rebooting The News, Internet News and Media Buyer Planner

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Let's Pray for the Safe Release of the BoingBoing Bloggers — Or, Why Knee-Jerk Hating on Pay Walls Is Profoundly Myopic — Given all the turmoil around the world, it's an incredibly harrowing time to be journalist. Case in point: Four bloggers from BoingBoing, as you've probably already heard …

Discussion: Media Money …, New York Magazine, @dannysullivan, SAY Media, AdPulp, Boing Boing and @poniewozik

THE OUTSIDER:
Journalism needs pollinators

Discussion: New York Magazine, Thanks:martinsfp

Matt Wells / Guardian:

How live blogging has transformed journalism — The benefits and the drawbacks of the open-to-all digital format — 10.57 GMT: Hello and welcome to an article about live blogging, a discussion of a format that has been derided as murdering traditional reporting but is almost certainly …

Discussion: realtime.arktan.com, Editors Weblog, currybetdotnet, The Wall Blog and eMedia Vitals

David Carr / New York Times:

Long-Form Journalism Finds a Home — In 2009, Evan Ratliff, a freelance writer for Wired, and Nicholas Thompson, a senior editor there, had just concluded a particularly satisfying article in which Mr. Ratliff tried to drop off the grid for a month and obscure his whereabouts in the digital age …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Editors Weblog, GalleyCat, MediaPost, The News About The News, mediabistro.com, Poynter, The Awl, Noted and eMedia Vitals

Amir Efrati / Digits:

Yahoo Executive Talks Acquisitions, Slams YouTube Buy — Yahoo is “gearing up for a very big year” of acquisitions, said a senior director of corporate development at the Internet company. … Speaking on a panel at the Global Technology Symposium in Menlo Park on Friday …

Discussion: Media Maverick and Venture Capital Dispatch, more at Techmeme »

Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
Hollywood makeover for YouTube

Discussion: Noted

Marc Hustvedt / Tubefilter:

‘Know Your Meme’ Acquired By Cheezburger in Seven-Figure Deal — By now, it's pretty clear there's a real business in the hocking of internet culture. And when it comes to the business of documenting—and merchandising—the latest memes bubbling up from the internet's underbelly and straight …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Huffington Post Co-Founder Ken Lerer Wants You to Watch His Next Company — What do you do once you sell your digital media business for $315 million? — Start another digital media business! — Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer, who sold his company to AOL earlier his month …

Discussion: Betabeat and SAI

Jillian C. York / Global Voices in English:

An Interview with Andy Carvin — With 40,000 Twitter followers and a dedicated stream of local sources, Andy Carvin has become a first stop on Twitter for news throughout the Middle East and North Africa. An NPR strategist, Carvin has approached social media-and Twitter in particular-as a platform for real-time reporting.

Jane Martinson / Guardian:

Tina Brown interview: remaking the news — Tina Brown's return to print media with Newsweek surprised many. Here, she explains her plans for the loss-making title — The last time Tina Brown launched a magazine - Talk in 1999 - she held a celebrity-stuffed party on an island off Manhattan …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Mediaite and New York Observer

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Warner Brothers Expands Facebook Rentals to “Harry Potter,” “Inception” — After a successful run renting “The Dark Knight” over Facebook, Warner Brothers has decided to offer five more movies over the social network, the studio announced on Sunday. — The studio will offer …

Discussion: VentureBeat, MediaPost, Future of Journalism, MediaMemo, Speakeasy, Techland, Media Buyer Planner, paidContent, The Next Web, WatchingTV Online, Cision Wire and NBC Bay Area

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Flixster Update: Warner Bros. Very Interested, as Yahoo Drops Out of Bidding for Social Movie Site — Recently, BoomTown reported that Flixster-the popular social movie site whose brands include the Rotten Tomatoes premium reviews site-was in early acquisition discussions with several suitors.

Discussion: Company Town

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

Building Loyalty on Web — Online Video Programs Remix Promotional Tactics to Draw Regular Audiences — Hulu's ‘Trailer Trash’ episodes are released on Mondays. — Companies rushing to develop original video series for the Web are scrambling to solve one of the industry's biggest problems: building an audience.