• As rumored, the New York Times plans to begin charging readers to access stories on the NYT website. It will be a metered system (so only "frequent readers" will be affected), and it doesn't start until 2011. And faithful subscribers to the print edition won't be forced to pay anything extra. [NYT]
• What are the chances Conan lands at Fox? It could happen, but there are plenty of reasons why Fox might decide to back away from a deal. [WSJ]
• The news biz: Talks to bring Ted Koppel back to ABC News appear to have fallen through; Megyn Kelly is getting her own show on Fox News; and CNN has announced it's partnering with hipster mag Vice, oddly enough. [NYO]
• Condé Nast's Fairchild unit has a new chief. Gina Sanders, Lucky's publisher (and Si Newhouse's niece) will now be running the show. [WWD]
• The Sundance Film Festival kicks off in Park City, Utah tomorrow. And it's shaping up to be fest's "most important" year ever, supposedly. [NYT, WSJ]

• Ex-Miramax boss Daniel Battsek is joining National Geographic Films. [LAT]
• Sarah Palin generated big ratings for Fox News. She wasn't nearly as much of a draw when she appeared on the cover of InTouch, though. [P6]
• Forbes is moving back to its old offices on Fifth Avenue. And Playboy may be shipping its editors from Chicago to Los Angeles in the near future. [NYP]
• Vampire Weekend's "Contra" is now No. 1 on the music charts. [Billboard]
• You're going to definitely want to tune into this year's Grammy awards: A "3-D tribute" to Michael Jackson is on planned. How exciting! [AP]
• Even more exciting: David Hasselhoff's reality show headed to A&E! [Wrap]
• One more downside to Times' recent cutbacks and layoffs: Disgrunted employees start stealing stuff. Like big batches of laptops. [Gawker]