Twenty-three out of MediaNews Group's 57 newspapers in 11 states -- the smaller and mid-size newspapers in California, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Massachusetts and Vermont -- will enact a metered paywall for online content starting today. The paywall goes into effect after readers have read five pages of online content; then print subscribers must $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year for online access, while non-print subscribers are charged $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. Certain items like obits, classifieds, and he newspapers' home pages will remain free.

Among the seeming-near-deluge of editors writing "Dear Reader" letters -- usually to announce a paywall -- comes this honest effort from the Orlando Sentinel's Mark Russell. He announces "that the move to cut [some national and world] news pages was driven by our need to reduce expenses." Still, he promises readers a renewed commitment to "local-watchdog, explanatory and community journalism." As Jim Romenesko points out, though, the Sentinel's move is ironically opposite that of its sister paper: "The Tribune-owned paper is reducing news pages two months after the Chicago Tribune announced that it's adding …

Weeks of "behind the scenes squabbling" between AMC and Sony have ended with the news that there will be 16 more episodes of the Sony-produced "Breaking Bad," culminating with the series finale, writes Lacey Rose. Production for the fifth and final season will begin in early 2012.

To expand its presence in the Midwest, Time Warner Cable will buy cable operator Insight Communications from Carlyle Group for $3 billion in cash. Insight serves 750,000 customers in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

Another recession -- before the one that pundits expected would come 2014 or later, when the "news industry had somehow gotten its digital transition act together and found some stable going-forward business model" -- would hit the business particularly hard, argues Ken Doctor. One major problem: "The digital transition is still in its early stages... No major publisher is driving more than 20 percent of total revenue from digital. In fact, publishers are playing a straddle game - just as the earth underneath is cracking, a dangerous position."Bottom line, even if the recession is stalled, "publishers are simply running out …

Everybody talks about the weather -- in this day and age, make that "tweets." The Weather Channel is taking advantage of this trend by teaming up with Twitter to provide weather-related, geographically targeted tweets to be broadcast during on-air programming -- a first. "The Weather Channel is placing an interesting bet on the power of citizen reporting with this integration," Janko Roettgers writes. Tweets -- also available on weather.com and the Weather Channel mobile app -- will be curated to filter out anything inappropriate for public broadcast, along with "observations about all the other things that can be hot, cool …

CBS News premiered a promotion during today's "Early Show" that "will surely irk the competition at ABC and NBC," writes Merrill Knox.After clips of the CBS New team, a voiceover says sarcastically, "It's not like we invented original reporting on television. Oh, wait: yes, we did."

"The newspaper is dead! Long live the newspaper!" is the headline for a piece explaining why the Lebanon Daily News is erecting a paywall for online news. It's one of the clearest, friendliest explanations for such a move that we've seen. "Today, we are no longer in the newspaper business. Rather, we're in the business of gathering and disseminating local news and information, continuously and virtually around the clock, in whatever form our 'customers' want to receive it," writes Paul Baker, the paper's managing editor. As "a news organization committed to serving the community across a variety of media platforms …

Viacom's June lawsuit against Cablevision disputing the latter's streaming of Viacom content over the Cablevision iPad app has been settled. That content will remain on Cablevision's Optimum Apps for mobile devices. "Neither side is conceding its original legal position or will have further comment," according to a statement that noted a "business matter" unrelated to the iPad issue had also been resolved between the two companies.

Money quote from Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli naysaying the possibility of a paywall for the newspaper: "We are quite content being the largest free premium newspaper online."Check out that quote and others from the Asian American Journalists Convention in Detroit at Poynter.