Mediagazer: Don't build a paywall, create a velvet rope instead (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

9:25 AM ET, March 27, 2012

Top News:

David Gambacorta / Philly.com:

35 more jobs in jeopardy at papers, website — If misery does indeed love company, it would probably be right at home at Philadelphia Media Network Inc. — Managers of the company, which owns the Daily News, Inquirer, philly.com and SportsWeek, have proposed cutting 35 jobs within the next six months …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Inquirer publishes investigation of possible future owner; also, a report of more layoffs — Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., is the state's largest hospital. Its chairman is George E. Norcross III, who is also part of a consortium of investors looking to buy the Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com.

Discussion: Philly.com

Dave Davies / newsworks: More layoffs coming at Philly papers?

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Mohamed Nanabhay on Al Jazeera's online growth and the future of news distribution — Mohamed Nanabhay likes to talk about something he calls “distributed distribution,” which, aside from being delightfully alliterative, might be a kind of rallying cry for the future of media.

Discussion: @evanchill

David Jolly / New York Times:

Al Jazeera Will Not Air French Rampage Video — PARIS — Al Jazeera received a video of the murderous rampage in southwest France but said on Tuesday that it would not air the gruesome footage amid strong objections from President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Discussion: BBC

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Don't build a paywall, create a velvet rope instead — As the newspaper industry continues to flounder, paywalls and other subscription models are becoming more common, with everyone trying to imitate the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Is there any other other option to putting up a turnstile around the news?

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, @carr2n, Guardian and Noted, Thanks:@mathewi

Patrick B. Pexton / Washington Post: Is a paywall coming to The Washington Post?

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Investigation will have made interesting viewing for Ofcom's News Corp team — Panorama's computer-hacking revelations come at a time when News Corporation's relationship with the satellite broadcaster BSkyB is already under scrutiny from the broadcast regulator, Ofcom.

BBC:
Murdoch firm used hacker site to target pay-TV rival

Discussion: Pocket-lint, The Verge, Gizmodo and Guardian

Mike Janssen / Current.org:

Digital journalists look for lessons in work of NPR's one-man newsroom … On a recent afternoon at NPR, Andy Carvin was watching a video of a protest purportedly shot in the Syrian city of Homs, a locus of that country's uprising against its repressive regime.

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

The Future of Magazines Should Look a Lot Like Spotify — The options we have for reading magazine journalism in the digital format are pretty sad. We live in an era of self-driving cars, augmented reality, and we can keep a map of the entire planet in our pocket, but we are stuck reading …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and TechNodeTechNode

Elana Zak / 10,000 Words:

How The Wall Street Journal Uses Pinterest — While Pinterest is taking many newsrooms by storm, there may still be some editors who are hesitant or unsure about how to go about using the online scrapbooking site. Why not take a page — or in this case a board — from The Wall Street Journal?

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, SocialTimes, Poynter and Talking Biz News

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

Blackhurst: Why Leveson Inquiry is ‘deepy flawed’ — The Leveson Inquiry into press standards is “deeply flawed”, according to the editor of The Independent. — Chris Blackhurst has also claimed that “if the Guardian had actually realised how to work a mobile phone” the inquiry would never have been set up.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Guardian

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Leveson inquiry: Met police may have to log all press meetings

Discussion: Telegraph

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

Sourcing Trayvon Martin “Photos” From Stormfront — Business Insider runs a linkbait post with a graphic of Trayvon Martin images it found on the neonazi website Stormfront. — It doesn't run them to debunk them, mind you, but to back up its thesis that “The Media Is Getting the Trayvon Martin Story Wrong …

Discussion: Riptide 2.0, Business Insider and Strollerderby

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:
Al Sharpton's Conflicting Roles in the Trayvon Martin Case

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, Forbes, TVNewser, The Raw Story and Tampa Bay Times

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Bob Sapio Out at Daily News — The Daily News said goodbye to managing editor Robert Sapio on Friday, according to newsroom sources. — His departure marks the end of a 40-plus-year career at the News. Mr. Sapio first joined the tabloid as an advertising office boy in 1969.

Emil Protalinski / Zero Day Blog:

Al Arabiya Facebook Page hacked, fake Syria news posted — Summary: Al Arabiya saw its English Facebook Page hacked and defaced today. The company has regained control of the Facebook Page, but not before a slew of fake news was posted. — Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned television news channel …

Discussion: The Next Web

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Tribune threatens to pull stations from DirecTV — Tribune Co., owner of 16 television stations across the country including KTLA-TV Los Angeles, is threatening to pull its channels from satellite broadcaster DirecTV. — At issue are fees that Tribune, which is also the parent of the Los Angeles Times …

Discussion: The Wrap, Adweek and Radio & Television …