Mediagazer: How Vibrant Media's Executive Team Vanished in One Day (Alex Kantrowitz/AdAge)

12:15 AM ET, November 26, 2013

Top News:

Mark Duffy / Gawker:

Buzzfeed's Ben Smith responds to charges of advertising influence from fired employee — TOP 10 BEST EVER WTF OMG REASONS BUZZFEED FIRED ME, LOL! — I achieved the near-impossible Monday morning, October 7, at approximately 9:30 am. I got fired from BuzzFeed.

Discussion: The Wrap, @palafo, Business Insider, @alucci, @mikeriggs, @mikiebarb, @tomgara, @helenlewis, @joshsternberg, @_cooper, @copyranter, @davechensky and @copyranter

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Katie Couric on Yahoo deal: ‘We are going to try things’ — David Shankbone — Last night, on the eve of a big official career announcement, Katie Couric was on the phone describing what she's going to be doing next. — “I don't think it is going to be a half-hour evening news broadcast …

Discussion: Yahoo, TVNewser, @jayrosen_nyu, @rafat, @jayrosen_nyu, Gawker, BBC, @emilybell, CNET, @howardkurtz, VatorNews, Businessweek, @hamishnews, Guardian, TIME, @niemanlab, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Hollywood Life, @brianstelter, The Wrap, @alexweprin, TechCrunch and The Huffington Post

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Mayer Confirms Hire of News Star Couric as “Global Anchor,” Calling Her the “Face of Yahoo News” — As AllThingsD had reported it would today, Yahoo said it has hired well-known TV news star Katie Couric for a high-profile job to do interviews and more on its homepage, with the decidedly lofty title of “global anchor.”

Discussion: CNET, New York Times, Mediaite, Poynter, TechCrunch, AdAge, Betabeat, Pocket-lint, Reuters, @marissamayer, @phkeane, @rafat, Mashable, The Next Web, The Wrap, Gigaom, @breakingnews, @sfiegerman, CNNMoney.com, The Verge, Online NewsHour, VideoInk, WebProNews, Inside TV, TIME and New York Magazine

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:

Paul Carr's news site NSFW Corp joins with Silicon Valley-backed PandoDaily — After NSFW's financial failure, the tech journalist joins the tech site PandoDaily - ‘the site of record for Silicon Valley’ — Tech journalist and entrepreneur Paul Carr's last venture was surprisingly old-school.

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

PandoDaily acquires NSFWCORP to double down on investigative reporting — There are three people who have long been on my dream team to help me build PandoDaily. One of them I've still gotta work on. The second is Mike Tatum, who keeps saying no and then keeps doing work for us for free anyway.

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY, @markgurman, @om, @hcheadle, @mathewi, @sarahcuda, @paulcarr, @firetomfriedman, @eringriffith, @mcarney, @jayrosen_nyu and @felixsalmon

Paul Carr / NSFWCORP:
NSFWCORP Sells Out — A few minutes ago, the Guardian broke …

Discussion: @paulcarr and @ggreenwald

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:

Julian Assange unlikely to face U.S. charges over publishing classified documents — The Justice Department has all but concluded it will not bring charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing classified documents because government lawyers said they could not do so without …

Discussion: @postbaron, @evacide, @alexjamesfitz, @penenberg, @jasonleopold and @penenberg

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

At ‘Business Insider,’ it's time to sell — The digital traffic world is not a sound long-term play. — CONNECT — Henry Blodget is a savvy operator who took brilliant advantage of the dot-com bubble and who then, after having taken too much advantage and getting banned …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Talking Biz News, @mccarthyryanj, @mathewi, @hblodget, @bobbymacreports, @felixsalmon and @raju

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:
Henry Blodget responds to Michael Wolff's claim that Business Insider is for sale

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @pkafka and @jyarow

Felix Salmon:
Michael Wolff can't do arithmetic

Discussion: @thestalwart and @jyarow

Global News:

Former Reuters news executive Chrystia Freeland wins election to Canadian parliament — Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland wins Toronto-Centre byelection — TORONTO - Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland has defeated her New Democrat rival Linda McQuaig in Toronto-Centre, ensuring the longtime Liberal riding remains red.

Discussion: @cafreeland

Newley Purnell / Quartz:

Bangkok's unlikely embrace of drone journalism shows the extent of the government's problems — Thai newspapers covering ongoing protests in Bangkok have adopted a new reporting tool in recent weeks: small, camera-equipped helicopters they're using to capture images of massive crowds.

Discussion: BBC, @emilybell and Online NewsHour

New York Times:
Drones Offer Journalists a Wider View

Discussion: @dgelles, @lukew, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, @nxthompson, Press Gazette, New York Magazine and @suerobinsonuw, Thanks:@steverubel

Mary Elizabeth Williams / Salon:

How a toy company got the Beastie Boys wrong — GoldieBlox and the Beastie Boys battle it out over sexism and the rap classic “Girls” — When the toy company GoldieBlox went viral earlier this month with an adorably inventive, celebratory anti-princess ad, it didn't just do so with its cheeky Rube Goldberg narrative.

Discussion: ArtsBeat, Gawker, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Guardian, Techdirt, The Verge and Business Insider

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Beastie Boys, ‘Girls’ Viral Video in Copyright Infringement Fight

Discussion: Gigaom, The Huffington Post, @mathewi, hypebot, @mat, @antderosa, Consequence of Sound, TIME, @samuelfine, @copyrightgirl and EW.com

Kate Torney / ABC:

Without fear or favour: why we broke the spy story — The ABC projects Australian democracy to the world not by acting as a mouthpiece for government, but by reporting the news as it is with rigour and independence. That's why you'll continue to see us breaking stories like the one on Indonesian phone-tapping, writes Kate Torney.

Discussion: @justiniannews, @profkeithdevlin and @jcstearns

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The New York Times moves away from its dual-reporting structure for video — The Times' own Christine Haughney has the news: … Headlam will be familiar to anyone who saw Page One, and his departure adds to the recent turnover on the Times' media desk, with Brian Stelter having just left for CNN and Ravi Somaiya joining the team.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
‘Times’ media desk shuffle: editor Bruce Headlam moving over to video side, replaced by Peter Lattman

Discussion: New York Times, FishbowlNY, @brianstelter and @joepompeo

Alex Kantrowitz / AdAge:

How Vibrant Media's Executive Team Vanished in One Day — Company Struggles To Move Beyond In-Text Ads — You hear about the hirings, the fundings, the skyrocketing valuations and exits. But for every $1 billion dollar IPO, there are dozens of companies that never get close.

Discussion: AdExchanger

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It — The TV business is having its worst year ever. — Audience ratings have collapsed: Aside from a brief respite during the Olympics, there has been only negative ratings growth on broadcast and cable TV since September 2011, according to Citi Research.

Discussion: @erikrydholm, @willsmith, @hugeinc and @hblodget

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Geraldo Rivera loses national syndication — Geraldo Rivera's radio show will no longer be nationally syndicated in 2014 and will be heard only on the airwaves in New York City. — Rivera's radio show has been nationally syndicated since August 2012, but Cumulus Media announced on Monday …

Discussion: Erik Wemple and The Huffington Post