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MediaNews is testing a paid-content model at two of its newspapers. The company says it creating new types of content for users, including geo-targeted, personalized, user-generated and aggregated content, and will include classifieds and local directories.

The Knight Foundations responds to shifting media industry economics by donating $2 million dollars to fund freedom on information act requests. While these requests are traditionally paid for by newspapers and news organizations, economic challenges facing the industry are undercutting traditional funding models.

"Three million cable customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will see their ABC station go to black (or something like it) early Sunday morning unless The Walt Disney Company and Cablevision either strike a deal or extend their tense contract negotiations. Cablevision's contract to carry the ABC station in New York City, WABC, expires at midnight, and the two companies are in a standoff over how much Disney, which owns ABC, should be paid for the right to retransmit the signal."

"The Los Angeles Times' critic may have panned the film, but that didn't stop Disney from paying top dollar to turn the newspaper's front page into a special advertisement for the new movie, "Alice in Wonderland." The ad, believed to be the first of its kind among America's leading big-city dailies, dismayed some readers and was lamented by media scholars as the latest troubling sign of difficult times at the newspaper and for journalism generally. Hollywood blogger Sharon Waxman cited one "media buyer insider" as saying the Walt Disney Co, the studio behind the film, paid $700,000 for the space.

"The Washington Post is using its new iPhone app -- the first of several forthcoming products -- as a test of the market for paid mobile news, according to Goli Sheikholeslami, the Post's vice president and general manager for digital operations."

The NY Times breaks ranks and announces a new plan to charge frequent users of their online site. Will this new economic model work?

Newsday is striking back after reports earlier this week poked fun at the small number of paying subscribers that Newsday.com has attracted since the site put up a pay wall three months ago. The news organization's top executive responded via a memo to staff on Thursday explaining why the paid model is not a disappointment.

A very small number of news organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Newsday, already charge online readers, each with a system developed largely in-house, and The New York Times announced recently that it planned to do the same. But with advertising plummeting, many other publishers eager for a new source of revenue are considering making the switch, despite the risk of losing audience and advertising.