Mediagazer: Two years in: Reflections on the New York Times paywall (Rachel McAthy/Journalism.co.uk)

2:20 PM ET, March 28, 2013

Top News:

Behind the business model of MailOnline, the biggest newspaper site in the world — There is much talk of paywalls at the moment, but don't forget the other side of the payfence: there is a huge opportunity in ad-supported free media and MailOnline is showing the way forward.

Discussion: paidContent, @jayrosen_nyu and Felix Salmon, Thanks:@mediabrief

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Storify starts to monetize with VIP, a premium plan for live-blogging, custom sources and more — Storify is moving forward with plans to realize its business model. Today, the social media curator is announcing the launch of Storify VIP, its premium service designed for media organizations …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mashable and Featured stories

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

After Casting Wide Net, CNN Finds Co-Host for Morning Show — In his search for a new morning television host that lasted months, the new head of CNN, Jeffrey Zucker, considered dozens of names, some boldface and some unknown. It wasn't until he paired Christopher Cuomo …

Discussion: Deadline.com, The Wrap, Business Insider, LA Observed, FishbowlDC, AdAge, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, Los Angeles Times, Erik Wemple and The Huffington Post

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Steve Swartz to succeed Frank Bennack as CEO of Hearst Corp. — One of the longest-serving chief executives in the media industry is stepping down. — Frank A. Bennack Jr., chief executive of Hearst Corp. since 1979, will give up that title in June. Steven Swartz, currently president and chief operating officer, will become CEO.

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, Wall Street Journal, Variety and Adweek

New York Times:
Chief Who Led Expansion at Hearst Will Step Down

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Media Decoder, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter

Edmund Lee / Businessweek:

AOL Waits for a Huffington Post Payoff — Two years after their merger, seated side by side in a corner conference room at AOL's (AOL) Manhattan headquarters on March 20, Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington say they couldn't be happier.

Discussion: @natives

Jessica Testa / BuzzFeed:

Matt Lauer Apologizes To Disgruntled Former Intern On Twitter — Sort of. The Today host is not having the best week. It started Tuesday, when an executive producer at Fox 8 in Cleveland tweeted something said by anchor/reporter Mark Zinni.

Discussion: @rudemattlauer, @rudemattlauer and @markzinni

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Penguin will offer its new ebooks to libraries again as of April 2 — In 2011, Penguin decided to stop offering new ebooks to libraries, citing “concerns about the security of digital editions.” The publisher then ended its relationship with digital library distributor OverDrive.

Discussion: Associated Press, VentureBeat and PublishersWeekly.com

John Jannarone / Wall Street Journal:

Data Don't Add Up for Thomson Reuters — When Thomson Corp. and Reuters Group merged, employees from the two sides suffered a typical culture clash. Nearly five years later, it is investors in the combined company who may feel most out of place. — Shares of Thomson Reuters remain 13% below …

Discussion: MarketBeat and NetNewsCheck Latest

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Two years in: Reflections on the New York Times paywall — A look at the metered pay model's first two years and some of the key lessons learned along the way — Paywalls, in particular the metered model, have been in the news as recently as this week. On Tuesday the Daily Telegraph announced …

Erik Grimm / INMA:

Digital newspaper: same advertising impact and so much more — New research reveals advertising impact is just as powerful on tablets as it is in print, especially if the online edition carries over the look and feel of the news brand. — Dutch news media have invested heavily in editions …

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

The power of the RSS reader — With the decreasing use of RSS readers over the last few years, which will probably be accelerated by Google Reader's shutdown in July, many are bidding good riddance to a medium that they never used well. — RSS is easy to abuse. In 2011, I wrote Sane RSS usage:

Discussion: Fast Company

Alison Langley / Columbia Journalism Review:

French antipiracy efforts unsuccessful — The French government started cracking down on illegal downloading, so users switched to illegal streaming — Hadopi—a wildly unpopular French antipiracy agency charged with seeking out illegal downloaders for prosecution—may be reorganized …

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

Upfronts 2013: Participant Media's Cable Network Named ‘Pivot’ — Channel targeting viewers 18-34 will offer broadband-only subscription — New York — Participant Media on Wednesday announced the name of its upcoming cable network targeting millennials: pivot. The network will launch in 40 million households on Aug. 1.

Discussion: Reuters, Deadline.com, Variety, Lost Remote and The Wrap