Mediagazer: Last man streaming: Spotify's $250 million war chest makes it the music company to beat (Casey Newton/The Verge)

5:00 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: @alucci, @mikeriggs, @katherineabell, @raju, @mikiebarb, @palafo, The Wrap, @amie_fr, @tomgara, @helenlewis, Business Insider, @joshsternberg, @_cooper, @copyranter, @davechensky, @copyranter and New York Magazine

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: @evacide, @alexjamesfitz, @penenberg, @jasonleopold, @penenberg, @jlllow, @jcstearns, @kgosztola and @postbaron

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: TIME, Yahoo, TVNewser, Gawker, Softpedia News, @emilybell, @howardkurtz, BBC, @jayrosen_nyu, @rafat, @jayrosen_nyu, Businessweek, Guardian, CNET, @niemanlab, VatorNews, VentureBeat, @hamishnews, Business Insider, Hollywood Life, @brianstelter, The Wrap, Mashable, @alexweprin 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.”

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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.

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Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
Paul Carr's news site NSFW Corp joins with Silicon Valley-backed PandoDaily

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

Discussion: @paulcarr and @ggreenwald

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

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: @andreasharsono, @justiniannews, @profkeithdevlin, @jcstearns, @bairdjulia and @jayrosen_nyu

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, Guardian, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Adweek, Techdirt, The Verge and Hollywood Reporter

Thomas Fuller / New York Times:

In Myanmar, Newly Free Media Struggle to Turn a Profit — YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar's journalists celebrated this year when the government lifted a five-decade ban on private newspapers. — But six months after a dozen dailies rushed into production, journalists who had withstood the wrath …

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Winamp lovers beg AOL to open source code — Petition to save Winamp or its source code initiated by software developers. — Last week, AOL announced the impending death of Winamp, saying that the 16-year-old media player would be shut down within a month.

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: @fergle, @emilybell, BBC, Online NewsHour, Press Gazette and New York Times

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, WWD Media Headlines, FishbowlNY, @brianstelter and @joepompeo

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Henry Blodget responds to Michael Wolff's claim that Business Insider is for sale — USA Today Thinks We Should Sell Business Insider! — Media guru Michael Wolff wrote a column in USA Today suggesting that we should sell Business Insider. — Mr. Wolff first said some nice things about me personally (thank you!).

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @pkafka and @jyarow

Michael Wolff / USA Today:
At ‘Business Insider,’ it's time to sell

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

Felix Salmon:
Michael Wolff can't do arithmetic

Discussion: @thestalwart and @jyarow

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 and @pkafka

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Exclusive: Flipboard raising another $50 million — Flipboard said in September that it had raised $50 million. That was only half the story. — By Dan Primack and Jessi Hempel — FORTUNE — Social news app Flipboard is in final negotiations to raise $50 million in new venture capital funding, Fortune has learned.

Discussion: VatorNews, VentureBeat, Silicon Valley Business …, VentureBeat, @kantrowitz and Business Insider

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Last man streaming: Spotify's $250 million war chest makes it the music company to beat — With $250 million in new capital, the company is planning a big expansion — and its competitors should worry — Among the many things that Spotify has excelled at since launching in 2010 is raising money …

Discussion: Guardian