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• The New York Times. Once again the old grey lady is trying to get people to pay for content, this time with a metered system akin to what the Financial Times does. Does it seem desperate, anti-consumer? Perhaps. But news outlets have to do something to get people to pay for content now that advertisers basically don’t want to anymore (in print at least). If the major print media don’t find some way to replace lost ad revenue soon, there won’t be any jobs for journalists like myself except at trade associations where we have to explain why journalists think they have a higher calling than most other professionals.

• Boost Mobile. The wireless carrier hopes to make a splash with a Super Bowl ad reuniting members of the 1985 Chicago Bears in an updated version of its Super Bowl Shuffle music video. As a Chicagoan, I particularly love this one, but will this connect with the rest of the country? That Bears team had more characters than any Super Bowl champ since (the NFL has clamped down on personality among players apparently), but will the new video mean anything to today’s fans, especially younger ones who don’t remember that team? One thing’s for sure, the video already has gotten tons of media attention in Chicago, so if nothing else, Boost should get a boost in its Windy City marketing from it.

• Ford. It seems every time I open a marketing newsletter or publication, I see something else about a Ford digital or social media marketing effort. Ford really seems to be getting the digital world and that’s great to see. I covered Ford, and other automakers, extensively for PRWeek in the early 2000s and knew then there were some forward-thinking folks in Ford’s communications ranks. It’s nice to see that corporate management is letting them use new tools and get away from the old auto marketing model that got all the U.S. manufacturers so disconnected from consumers.

• Newly elected Sen. Scott Brown. Media mavens should be thanking him, regardless of their political affiliation. Advertising Age notes that his win will embolden other candidates in this year’s mid-term Congressional elections, and that will mean more political advertising, a needed income boost for still-struggling print and local TV outlets. Talk about the law of unintended consequences. Conservative Republicans helping the media outlets they so often lambast by stepping up advertising thanks to the upset in Massachusetts.