MediaFile

The New York Times will start charging for full access to its articles on phones, tablet computers and the Web from March 28. You’ll still be able to access as many articles as you want through Facebook and Twitter, writes Business Insider’s Matt Rosoff. Felix Salmon thinks readers will go elsewhere.

Toshiba said an assembly line in Japan making liquid crystal displays would be closed for a month, and PC maker Lenovo voiced worries over parts in the latest threats to electronics supply chains from Japan’s devastating earthquake.

Sales of e-books in January increased by more than 115 percent compared to the same time the year before, a report released by the Association of American Publishers said.

Activity from Rustock, one of the world’s most prolific spam email networks, ground to a halt, apparently thanks to a coordinated effort by Internet service providers and software vendors, writes The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Hickins.

Best-selling author Jane McGonigal is spreading a message that playing games, whether electronic or physical, is not a waste of time but can improve lives and solve real world problems.

The New York Times announced that it will begin to charge people to access its digital content as it tries for a second time to diversify its revenue stream in the face of declining advertising sales and a drop-off in print readership.

Starting March 28, you’ll be able to read 20 articles a month without paying. On your 21st article, you’ll have the 3 digital news packages to choose from: $15 a month for Website and a mobile phone app access; $20 for Web access and an iPad app; and $35 for unlimited access, the paper wrote.

Is it worth it?

Felix Salmon thinks $15 for four weeks might be cheap compared to the cost of a print subscription, but $195 per year is enough to drive readers elsewhere.

AOL turned 25 today, prompting Chief Executive Tim Armstrong to make the rounds with co-founder Steve Case to celebrate the milestone. AOL has a colorful and much chronicled history, which we won’t go into detail here. What is most interesting to this reporter is  not AOL’s  past but rather its plan to pitch itself forward  as a content company just at the point when traditional media — we’re  looking at you newspapers –  are undergoing wrenching operational changes.

All of this is to say that content, especially good local content, is expensive to produce even when the plug has been pulled from the printing presses.

Yet AOL executives believe there is a vein to mine and have been snapping up professional journalists while casting wide nets to capture “citizen reporters” eager to get their names out by covering the goings-on and activities at the neighborhood level. AOL is hiring expensive professionals to complement inexpensive user-generated content tied to search engine optimization. Ad dollars, the company hopes, should follow thanks to its technology platforms that AOL believes can maximize ad revenue.