The New York Times is getting into the cruise business with Times Journeys. Enjoy the Adriatic while listening to lectures from Times journalists!

The October cruise has two price components: the cruise cost and the conference fee. Cruise costs range from $1,799 per person for an inside cabin to $6,099 for a deluxe suite (plus taxes), and include meals onboard, stateroom accommodation and entertainment, in addition to the voyage to some of the most enchanting and culturally rich destinations in the world. The conference fee, which includes approximately 30 hours of programming and two cocktail receptions, is $1,575.

Ideas include “an actual awl,” “office radio with AM and FM,” and “a fearsome, extremely pretty, trilingual and totally useless secretary to be cruel and witty to visitors.”

Brian Stelter has a smart piece in today’s Times (pegged to the debut of the new CBS morning show) on how the three major evening broadcasts in the United States no longer march in lockstep:

On any given night, one might lead with the Republican campaign, another with extreme weather and the third with an exclusive interview.

“The three evening newscasts have become more different from one another than at any time I can remember,” said Bill Wheatley, who worked at NBC News for 30 years and now teaches at Columbia. [And is outgoing president of the Nieman advisory board. —Ed.]

The differences provide a stark illustration of the state of the news media — much more fragmented than ever, but also arguably more creative.

The viral aggregator will apparently have plenty of money to back their new editorial efforts, which are already getting good reviews. Note Hearst Media is one of the funders. TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis:

The company was accidentally profitable this summer before it started aggressively hiring and revenue has been growing more quickly than traffic Peretti says. Buzzfeed eschews traditional advertising in favor of socially focused ads from brands like Disney and Microsoft.

A new post from Clay Shirky, sure to be widely read:

To understand newspapers’ 15-year attachment to paywalls, you have to understand “Everyone must pay!” not just as an economic assertion, but as a cultural one. Though the journalists all knew readership would plummet if their paper dropped imported content like Dear Abby or the funny pages, they never really had to know just how few people were reading about the City Council or the water main break. Part of the appeal of paywalls, even in the face of their economic ineffectiveness, was preserving this sense that a coupon-clipper and a news junkie were both just customers, people whose motivations the paper could serve in general, without having to understand in particular.