Mediagazer: Spotify pushing labels to lower costs, open up free service to phones (Greg Sandoval/The Verge)

5:55 PM ET, February 20, 2013

Top News:

New York Times Co. Puts Boston Globe Up for Sale — New York Times Co. is formally exploring a sale of the Boston Globe, its only remaining business outside the core New York Times media brand. The publisher is working with Evercore Partners Inc. as an adviser for a sale, Times Co. said today in a statement.

The New York Times Company:

The New York Times Company Announces Plan to Sell the Boston Globe and Related Properties — The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) today announced that it plans to sell its New England Media Group, including The Boston Globe and its related properties, and that it has retained Evercore Partners …

Discussion: Politico, Media Decoder, paidContent, The Huffington Post, Guardian, Adweek, The Wrap, AllThingsD, Capital New York, Slate, Mashable! and @justinnxt

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Times’ editor Jill Abramson opens up about layoffs, the time she almost quit, and loneliness at the top — Several months ago, New York Times Company C.E.O. Mark Thompson accompanied Times executive editor Jill Abramson on a trip to California, in which she took meetings with …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, @juliemmoos, @janinegibson, @felixsalmon, @hermanywong and The Huffington Post

Esther Zuckerman / The Atlantic Wire:

Andy Carvin: What I Read — How do people deal with the torrent of information pouring down on us all? What sources can't they live without? We regularly reach out to prominent figures in media, entertainment, politics, the arts, and the literary world to hear their answers.

Discussion: @acarvin, @jayrosen_nyu, @mkoplow, @sullduggery, @toddjolmstead and @sourceadam

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Publishers Opt Out of the Pageview Rat Race — The promise of the Internet was that anyone with a keyboard and a connection could become a publisher and make tons of money. Like many promises rooted in theory, when it comes to practicality, things are quite different.

Discussion: @mccarthyryanj, @rajunarisetti, @chrisdaps, @jonfine, @rafat, @kevglobal, @joshsternberg, @johngapper, @newswhip, @myersnews and Kirk LaPointe's …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Yahoo's latest attempt to reinvent the portal is too little and too late — There's been a rush of optimism about Yahoo lately, thanks in large part to its new CEO, much-admired former Google executive Marissa Mayer. After a number of speeches about her broader strategy to reinvent the company …

Discussion: PandoDaily, Business Insider, CNET, NetNewsCheck Latest, eMedia Vitals, ReadWrite, The Wrap, Audience Development and Yodel Anecdotal

Amar Toor / The Verge:
Yahoo unveils new ‘personal’ homepage with news feeds and social integration

Discussion: NYT Bits, VentureBeat, Fast Company, Digits, @anildash, Wired, Bloomberg and Reuters

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

AOL's Grand Human-Heavy Local News Experiment Is Coming To An End — AOL seems to be radically changing its plans for Patch, it's network of local news sites. — We've heard from insiders that the division is pivoting away from a human editor centric model, toward one where local sites …

Ann Marie Lipinski / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Eugene Patterson and Aaron Swartz: Ghosts speaking across the page — They died the same weekend, one 26, a prodigy of the Internet age who took his own life, the other an 89-year-old whose moral battles were waged on newsprint and whose final assignment was editing the Old Testament.

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

Dennis Publishing invests in app start-up Padify — The software allows designers at the magazine publisher to create content that will be suited to a range of devices — Copyright: C. Regina on Flickr. Some rights reserved. — Dennis Publishing, which produces The Week …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Spotify pushing labels to lower costs, open up free service to phones — Streaming service seeks to edge into profitability by controlling content costs, growing subscriber base — Spotify, the popular music subscription service, is due to meet in the coming weeks with its major counterparts …

Discussion: Music Ally, Electronista, MacRumors, App Advice, TNT Magazine, Pocket-lint, Fast Company, CMU, Guardian, Digital Spy and Gizmodo

Anthony Crupi / Adweek:

Fox Inks Partnership With YouTube's WIGS Channel — Fox on Tuesday announced it has entered into a multiyear pact with YouTube's female-centric drama channel WIGS. — One of the 100 or so original content channels launched by YouTube a year ago, WIGS offers broadcast-quality dramatic fare designed to appeal to female viewers.