At first we thought this may have been news about The New York Times and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. planning to build a pay wall for his newspaper’s Web site, but apparently they are catching pay wall fever across the sea, too. The Times, owned by News International, is planning on charging for online access as well, as editor James Harding announced today.

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The New York Times posted an article yesterday on the hesitancy of Americans, compared to other countries’ citizens, to pay for news they read online. This has been an issue we’ve seen come up a lot recently with the explosion of pay walls, and a study done by the Boston Consulting Group shows that in America, where only half the residents polled said they’d be willing to pay for content, the issue is more pressing than it is other Western countries. But where have we seen numbers like this before?

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Yesterday morning saw the memorial service for The New York Times‘ William Safire, the former Nixon speechwriter who became an Op-Ed columnist for the paper in 1973. Katherine Rosman was scoping the scene The Wall Street Journal and she got all the dirt:

Present at the memorial was Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who recounted how Safire had been hired by his father after a dinner party for Nixon where the elder Timesman had originally been insulted to sit “next to the flack!”

Safire wasn’t all dark suits and grammar lessons though, as Barbara Walters recounted how while working at at a PR firm that he managed, Safire had given her a Christmas present of a see-through nightgown with lace panties. She got the joke, though admitted that today, “I’d have to report it to human resources.”

The service also included speeches from Mort Zuckerman, Bill Janklow, Bob Menschel, Julie Eisenhower (Nixon’s daughter), and William’s son Mark Safire.

William Safire, Remembered –Wall Street Journal

Previously: William Safire, NYT Columnist, Dies At 79, Paying Tribute To Safire

Last night, New York public radio station WNYC threw a gala at Gotham Hall to celebrate its recent acquisition of New York’s classical radio station WQXR and honor its former owner, The New York Times Co.

Hosted by Alec Baldwin, the evening featured performances by folksinger Judy Collins and opera diva Deborah Voigt. David Sanger, a New York Times correspondent and host of the “Washington Report” on WQXR — and grandson of the station’s founder Elliott Sanger — presented the Times Co. with an award, accepted by Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., commemorating the company’s stewardship of WQXR since 1944.

Later, Baldwin announced that the winner of the evening’s raffle would get a radio — actually, an Internet radio tuned to WQXR. “The New York Times got a piece of glass, for the millions and millions of dollars they’ve coughed up,” he said. “A piece of glass. The winner of the raffle gets a radio.”

(Video and more pictures after the jump)

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One surprising reaction to The New York Times‘ recent announcement that it plans to cut 100 newsroom staffers through buyouts and, if necessary, layoffs is some readers’ willingness to pay for the paper’s content online in order to save jobs and maintain its quality.

Over the weekend, the Times‘ public editor Clark Hoyt discussed the paper’s staff cutting plans, seeking answers from executive editor Bill Keller. Acknowledging that some have offered a pay wall as a possible solution to the layoff plans, Keller said, “It’s a much tougher, more complicated decision than it seems to all the armchair experts. There is no clear consensus on the right way to go.”

Explained Hoyt:

“At stake are millions of dollars from online advertisers who want the largest possible number of readers. Putting up any kind of pay wall has the potential to drive away readers and some of those dollars.”

Still, Keller revealed a decision on how the paper will proceed with a pay wall is a few weeks away. Unfortunately, it looks like 100 people will be losing their jobs before a pay model can be unveiled. The realities of the media today is that any income that will come from a paid online content won’t be able to save jobs — at least right away.

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Sam Zell visited Bloomberg TV to proclaim that Tribune Co. would be out of bankruptcy by the end of the first quarter. But when asked if he regretted the deal — if it was, in fact, the “worst business decision he’s ever made” — he didn’t back down.

“It’s certainly the most amount of money I’ve ever lost in a single deal,” he said.

However, Zell said that given the challenges facing all newspaper companies, “Nobody can survive.”

Yesterday, we had New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. comparing print media to the Titanic, and today Zell admits that the end is near. Uh oh.

Today on the media- bistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven discussed the day’s biggest media headlines, including news that Politico is launching a local news Web site to compete with The Washington Post. Can this new venture bring down the venerable D.C.-based paper, even as it struggles to cover local news?

Jason and Matt agreed that new business models are desperately needed, and Politico, a successful political Web site, may be on to something by focusing on a new niche. “I think it could work, especially with the metro reporting. It’s definitely hemorrhaging at newspapers today,” Jason said.

Another big headline on this rainy Wednesday involved Sarah Palin. After filing her last financial reports with the state of Alaska, we have learned that she has already earned $1.25 million in an advance on her book, Going Rogue. “This is not chump change, this book,” Jason said.

And here’s some other interesting Palin news: there are two parody books — both called Going Rouge — coming out the same day as Palin’s book: a coloring book for kids and a collection of essays critical of Palin by The Nation.

Also discussed on the podcast: New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. comparing print media to the Titanic. Fun!

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

AgencySpy: Gawker Media fell victim to a phony ad sales scam, which resulted in ads on Gawker’s sites crashing browsers and, in some cases, installing spyware on computers.

FishbowlLA: Amidst the hefty Condé Nast layoffs, Bon Appetit editor Heather John has left the magazine, but will “land some kind of contributing deal.”

New York Times: The Wall Street Journal has abandoned its plans to sell its U.S. edition in London and instead has revealed a new strategy in Europe that includes a redesigned Wall Street Journal Europe.

Daily Intel: New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. compares print media to the Titanic: “Even if the Titanic came in safely to New York Harbor, it was still doomed. Twelve years earlier, two brothers invented the airplane.”

Vivian Schiller, Soledad O’Brien and Alan Miller Photo via Meredith Goncalves

Last night, Time Warner hosted a litany of major media players, all gathered in support of The News Literacy Project. Founded by Alan Miller, who left his investigative reporter position at the Los Angeles Times to do the unthinkable – teach students to think critically about the barrage of information thrown at them on the Internet — the program attracted the attention of board members like NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, CNN‘s Soledad O’Brien and Paul Mason, formerly of ABC News. Also on hand yesterday evening was The New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., one of the evening’s co-hosts and participants in last night’s silent auction to raise money for the NLP.

Launched last spring, the NLP brings journalists from across the media world to social studies, English, and history classes in middle and high schools in New York City, Maryland, and Chicago where they teach students how to think critically and pick out reliable information from the overwhelming amount of news that bombards them every day.

Last night’s fundraiser included panels with some of the inaugural members of the program, including Anabel Rivas, a graduate of New York’s Facing History School (one of the three public schools that participated in the first NLP program), as well as Facing History’s principal Gillian Smith, Vice Principal Mark Otto and AP English teacher Kristina Wylie, whose classroom was one of the first to benefit from the News Literacy Program.

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Yesterday afternoon, The Boston Globe staff received a memo from the paper’s owner The New York Times Co.‘s chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and CEO Janet Robinson informing them that the company no longer planned to sell the Boston paper.

The memo, which the Globe posted on its Web site Boston.com, read in part:

“The Globe has significantly improved its financial footing by following the strategic plan it set out at the beginning of this year. All along, we explicitly recognized that a careful restructuring of the Globe was one possible route and, thanks to your hard work, that is precisely what has been done.”

Robinson will be visiting Boston for a townhall meeting today at 11 a.m., the memo added. We hope she will address the Globe‘s employees’ previous concerns about layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.

Meanwhile, the Times Co. is still seeking “strategic alternatives” for its other Massachusetts paper, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The memo and this SEC filing both emphasize that those negotiations will be wrapped up soon.

Meanwhile, the Globe‘s largest union, which first rejected the Times Co.’s proposed contract changes earlier this year, has taken action against its president Dan Totten, accusing him of misappropriation of funds. We’re interested to see how the union’s challenges will affect the representation of employees as the paper moves forward under Times Co. management.

Either way, the Times Co.’s announcement was a cause for celebration today in Boston. Case in point: the Globe‘s story about the decision today was entitled, “Sighs of relief heard as the Globe saga subsides.”

Related: Sulzberger, Robinson Explain Why Readers Embrace Print