After half a year of bragging about all his customers, would-be newspaper paywall king Steven Brill has finally named some of them. Prepare to follow The Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era right into the future.
It's not easy selling a paywall. Just ask oft-failed entrepreneur Steven Brill, whose terrible copycat idea to save journalism with micropayments met stiff skepticism. His solution: Claim an ever-growing number of unnamed "clients," charted against uncooperative reality after the jump.
New Yorker contributor and media entrepreneur Steven Brill now says 1,000 newspapers have signed "letters of intent" to explore charging for their content, twice as many as a month ago. These aren't meaningful numbers. But Brill needs them to be.
• The next top editor to fall victim to budget cuts at Condé Nast, at least according to Keith Kelly: Architectural Digest editor Paige Rense. [NYP]
• The first guest on Jay Leno's new show on Sept. 14: Jerry Seinfeld. [THR]
• Jay, Conan, Jon, Jimmy, Jimmy, or Craig? Now more than ever, celeb (and their publicists) are being forced to choose between late-night hosts. [THR]
• At least a dozen advertisers have abandoned Glenn Beck's show now that he's established himself as the most vile human being on television. [NYT]
• A big group of media companies—including CBS, NBC, Disney, News Corp., and Viacom—have teamed up to give the Nielsen ratings a run for its money. [NYT]
In your breakthrough Thursday media column: a new trial for a Russian journalist's murder, a mini-Jayson Blair at a college paper, Steven Brill's optimistic projections, and Boston Globe staffers are unhappy with their lot in life.
