The Observer: After a rough 2009, it looks like Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend is ushering in the New Year with pep talks for every publication.

Silicon Alley Insider: Comcast is in talks to carry ESPN‘s 3D channel.

New York Times: Speaking of 3D, Discovery is set to show the pyramids and the Great Wall of China in 3D on its upcoming channels set for 2011.

Vanity Fair/CNET: A Twitter trend piece gets ripped apart for its pointlessness. At least there’s links to the subjects’ Twitter feeds now.

Variety: The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s executive online editor Chris Krewson has been named the new editor of Variety.com.

Variety announced today that it hopes to introduce its new pay wall plan in stages. And unlike other publications, which only give you a blurb before asking you to register, starting tomorrow Variety.com will allow readers to access two whole pages of content before randomly selecting one in ten readers to ask to subscribe.

Eventually, Variety is hoping to only allow non-members access to five pages of free content a month.

Variety is taking a risk by being one of the first niche publications to enact an online pay wall. Hopefully Nikke Finke won’t just go and take all of its readers right out from under its nose.

Read More: Variety.com Going Behind Paywall, Again; Apes FT.com’s Model –paidContent