Though increasingly rare, “hard paywalls” -- which deny readers even a taste of digital content without paying subscription fees -- can work. Take The Times of London, which -- along with sister paper The Sunday Times -- have 153,000 digital subscribers paying upwards of $10 a week. “That adds up, very roughly, to $60 million a year in paywall revenue,” Ryan Chittum writes in The Audit, Columbia Journalism Reviews’ business section. “And digital subscribers are still growing at a healthy clip, up 38% from two years ago.” 

Last year, Web sites that specialize in pirated content took home about a quarter of a billion dollars in advertising, according to a new report from the Digital Citizens Alliance. More startling still, “The 30 largest pirate sites -- the report focused on movie and TV content -- will make an average of $4.4 million annually from ads,” Venture Beat reports, citing the DCA’s data. “Since their content is priceless, literally, these sites can have profit margins in the vicinity of 80 percent to 94 percent.”

Bravo ordered the series "Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce,” starring former  "House" star Lisa Edelstein, as its first scripted show. So far two other attempts at the scripted genre so far have not worked out for the cabler known for its reality shows.

NBC is getting positive early ratings for its new-this-year approach to covering figure skating in the Winter Olympics: airing all the performances in the competitions during the day, and selective taped coverage in prime time, with a different set of announcers for each daypart, reports Ken Fang. He also reviews the performance of the new announcers, who include former Olympics skaters Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir -- whom he calls "delightful."

Expanding into new territory, Vice Media and FremantleMedia are co-creating a multichannel food platform for millennials. “Initially, the [joint venture] will be a Web channel on Vice, but the project is structured to leverage FremantleMedia’s position to sell the content to TV networks globally,” Variety reports. “The Vice food vertical will comprise a mix of video, articles, how-tos, recipes and events.” 

The AP’s ongoing efforts to provide members with white-label sports-based microsites are reaching new heights with the Winter Olympics in Sochi. “Around 600 news organizations -- mostly newspapers but also radio and TV stations -- are taking advantage of customizable, AP-hosted Web content for the Olympics,” Poynter reports. “Each news outlet with an AP membership can add AP widgets to its homepage or sports page, and those widgets link to an individually branded microsite containing AP content.” 

Google is investing ample resourses into Glass, so it doesn’t want a few “glassholes” -- people who use the headgear to annoying and/or creepy ends -- ruining it for everyone. Trying to curb such bad behavior, Google has released an etiquette guide for Glass “explorers,” i.e., beta-testers. “Respect others and if they have questions about Glass don’t get snappy,” Google suggests. In the words of CNet’s Chris Matyszczy: “Google is keen to help the nerds assimilate with the world as it sadly is.” 

Cybercrime will be the topic of a new spinoff of CBS' "CSI" franchise. Not sure if this is the official name, but Margaret Lyons floated "CSI: The Internet" in her report.

Who knew? The third edition of "Hadar," (English translation: "Glorious"), an upscale fashion magazine for Orthodox Jewish women, is coming out "just after Purim," (after March 16), "available for $3.99 in stores throughout the New York/New Jersey area and for purchase online," writes Maayan Jaffee. Owner/content director Bari Weizman is "reaching out to and sometimes securing national advertisers."

In the final weeks of the race to win Academy Awards, movie studios are spending lavishly on ads for both Best Picture  -- and even on "campaigns like the one for 'Despicable Me 2,' which received animated-feature and original-song nominations," writes Steve Pond. In fact, "one veteran of the Oscar wars estimates that this could be the most expensive year ever..." In his post, Pond also decodes the messages in these final ad campaigns -- like "Marty and Leo kick butt" for "The Wolf of Wall Street."