In your smiley Tuesday media column: newspapers only sell online subscriptions to lone nuts, Dan Rather loses on appeal, a headline is debated, and Paste magazine lives.

So, how's the grand experiment in newspaper pay walls going? Alan Mutter crunches some numbers from a new survey and finds that an average of 2.4% of print subscribers pay for online access. Upside: the price didn't affect subscriber rates too much. So, charge twelve million dollars per online access password and everyone wins.


Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS, which was previously dismissed, has now been turned down on appeal. Forget it, Dan.


BIG MEDIA CONTROVERSY: Is this headline awesome or does it suck? "Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo." It's from a WaPo story that is not really about Star Wars! Anyhow some people like it while other headline people are like, it's not so great. Just another crazy day in headline land!


Paste magazine, which not long ago was reduced to begging readers for donations to stay afloat, is now well on the road to financial recovery. Amazing! We too are taking reader donations, starting now.