Journalism Online LLC, the company set on selling its e-commerce engine to newspapers to enable them to more easily charge for online content, announced on Thursday that more than 500 newspapers and magazines have signalled their intent to join the venture, AFP reported Thursday.

Formed in April by three industry executives from differing backgrounds, the company said it has received letters of intent to join the group, from a publisher representing 176 dailies, 330 non-dailies and "leading global news sites."

"The Web sites of these publishers have more than 90 million monthly visitors from around the world," the New York-based company said in a statement.

The company hopes to open the payment platform by the fall. The platform will help the newspapers implement content payment systems through which publications may offer content at self-determined prices. Consumers, meanwhile, will be allowed to create a single account, usable across all newspapers using Journalism Online. The company will provide subscription systems, will market the subscription and will license the content to intermediaries such as search engines.

"Affiliates will select their own approach to offering paid access, based on their respective brands, content and online readership," according to the statement.

Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira recently wrote a feature article on a business coach who teaches executives how to handle Generation X and Y employees and clients. Culture and media Web site Gawker then did what it does best, when Hamilton Nolan wrote a snarky blog post about, and linked to, Shapira's article, poking fun at the silliness of the most recent "fakest job corporate America ever created."

At first, Shapira wrote that seeing a Gawker posting about his article left him "feeling a bit triumphant" and "flattered." But, after e-mailing his editor and taking a harder look at the Gawker posting (which credited the Post at the very end), his flattered tone changed.

After hours of reporting and transcribing, "it took me about a day to write the 1,500-word piece. How long did it take Gawker to rewrite and republish it, cherry-pick the funniest quotes, sell ads against it and ultimately reap 9,500 (and counting) page views?" Shapira states in a piece on the Washington Post's Web site.

He called Nolan, who told him it took an hour or less.

The UK's public broadcasting station, the BBC, will team up with four major national newspapers in order to provide video content for their online editions c21media.net reported.

The videos will be embedded in the sites of the participating papers; The Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, and Independent. Video content will appear along with the papers' own unique content on politics, business, science and technology.

The partnership is included in the BBC's "Project Marquee" which aims to "share content, expertise and technology in the name of public service."

Speaking of the new collaboration as well as the mounting pressure on the BBC to spread its wealth, Guy Ruddle, Telegraph's head of visuals said The Telegraph has "been waiting for the BBC to start sharing its content with us and this is definitely a step in the right direction in promoting partnerships."

Clarity Media's newspaper site, Examiner.com, will be published using software developed by Southern Californian company Verve Wireless, socalTech.com reported.

Verve Wireless' publishing software is designed to help newspaper publishers deliver their content to mobile media, such as phones. The software will enable the Examiner "highlight content produced by the firm's U.S. coverage," according to Examiner.