RR Donnelley execs aren’t talking —neither are Steve Brill and Gordon Crovitz, at least about deal details—but paidContent has learned from multiple sources that the value of the Journalism Online-Press+ deal is in the range of $35-to-$45 million, including possible earnouts. When I spoke with News Corp.‘s Jon Housman earlier…

That was fast. Just shy of two years after launch, Steve Brill, Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindery Jr. have sold their “make journalism pay” business to someone who already makes money from publishing. Chicago-based R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. has acquired Journalism Online and its consumer-facing Press+ paid content…

As the NYTimes.com prepares to launch its metered pay model any day now, the topic of paywalls is something every media organization is exploring. The views on the value of charging readers flew back and forth during an afternoon session at the paidContent 2011 conference, where Robert Andrews, UK Editor,…

Updated: In a doubleheader announcement meant to move the needle on Rupert Murdoch’s ambitious paid content plans, News Corp has acquired the Skiff e-reading platform from the Hearst startup and is joining forces with Steve Brill and Gordon Crovitz through a stake in their start-up Journalism Online. The Skiff acquisition…

Observers aren’t the only ones hearing more about Journalism Online and its plans for Press+ today. The company’s affiliates—publishers who have gone beyond expressing an interest but may not have committed yet—got a combo update/pitch, obtained by paidContent and published below.

Finally some clarity after months of mystery about possible affiliates and constant questions about whether Journalism Online is reality or vaporware. A private beta has been underway for weeks but JO founders Steve Brill and Gordon Crovitz declined until now to identify any of the affiliates taking part. Turns out…

Updated: BusinessWeek is reporting that former WSJ publisher and Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) exec Gordon Crovitz is “teaming” with ZelnickMedia in a run for the magazine, citing “executives familiar with the matter.” It’s far more likely that he is advising Zelnick on a possible bid: Crovitz worked with Zelnick and…

Journalism Online says companies representing more than 1,000 newspapers, magazines and online media outlets have signed letters of intent to work with the startup on “freemium” models and that the collective number of monthly uniques for those sites passes 100 million. In the end, all that really matters is how…

Journalism Online hasn’t moved beyond letters of intent on the commercial side but the Steve Brill-Gordon Crovitz-Leo Hindery Jr. enterprise is adding a non-profit service that already has a launch partner: the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). The non-profit service announced this morning (these are intentional non-profits,…

Journalism Online, the new make-journalism-pay venture from Steve Brill, Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindery, has letters of intent from newspaper publishers representing 506 newspapers, magazine and “leading global news sites” but isn’t identifying any by name. That’s after weeks of promising a list of interested publishers. They will be announced,…

How did Steve Brill, Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindery, Jr., wind up cofounding a venture to make online journalism pay? Or, in this case, Journalism Online, LLC. It dates as far back as the ‘90s when Hindery almost wound up owning a stake in Brill’s CourtTV joint venture only to…

The news business has problems and entrepreneur Steve Brill, former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz and cable guy-turned-investor Leo Hindery, Jr. think they have the answers. The three are founding Journalism Online, LLC, funded with an undisclosed amount by Hindery’s InterMedia Advisors, LLP, to provide news publishers with content-based…

Uncertainty and apprehension about the future are the underlying emotions at the morning sessions at the SIIA Industry Summit. In her opening keynote, Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson (NYSE: PSO), which publishes FT, talked about traditional media companies having to look beyond content creation as their reason for existing. As…

Though he didn’t directly come out and say it,ex-WSJ publisher Gordon Crovitz, had a different message in his SIIA keynote than what we heard yesterday from Reuters CEO Tom Glocer. While Glocer expressed confidence that business media was not in as much trouble as consumer media, Crovitz contends that it’s…

One of the senior Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) executives to leave as News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) is swooping in is Gordon Crovitz, the Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, EVP of Dow Jones & Company, and president of the Company’s Consumer Media Group. He will leave as the acquisition closes…

It is official: The publisher of Wall Street Journal Gordon Crovitz (and a good friend of ours) will be leaving Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) after the acquisition closes next week. Crovitz, before being appointed the publisher of WSJ, was president of the Electronic Publishing Group where he oversaw the launch…

This was expected: Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) CEO Richard Zannino will leave the company upon the closing of its sale to News Corp., (NYSE: NWS) planned for next week, the company has just announced. News Corp. says it will be announcing a successor shortly. Release. WSJ has posted a copy…

Given Rupert Murdoch’s comments this week about expecting WSJ.com to go free, we thought we’d share the video of a Q&A by executive editor Staci D. Kramer with Gordon Crovitz from our recent conference on the Future of Business Media. Crovitz, a former journalist, is the publisher of the WSJ…

With the buyout of Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) nearing completion, Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz chatted with paidContent.org executive editor Staci Kramer, at the Future of Business Media conference. Discussion centered on the topics of the day: the merger, making the Journal free, the role of subscription revenue. —Wall…