Mediagazer: Why Is Investor Shervin Pishevar Amassing a Stake in Demand Media? He Likes the CEO. (Kara Swisher/Re/code)

9:50 AM ET, November 15, 2014

Top News:

Uber Integrates With Spotify To Let Passengers Become Backseat DJs — Uber is adding a new feature to its mobile app that could allow passengers to play DJ while they take a ride with one of its drivers. Thanks to an integration with Spotify, Uber will soon make music a central part of its ride-hailing service.

Discussion: New York Times, @startupljackson, @tomgara, @mikeisaac, @dmac1, @megan, Business Insider and hypebot

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

The Poynter Institute lost $3.5 million in 2013, makes progress toward new revenue sources — The Poynter Institute filed its financial statement for 2013 with the Internal Revenue Service Friday. It shows a loss of about $3.5 million for that year. — Poynter has taken a number of steps …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and Poynter

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Obama seems to oppose Risen jailing — YANGON, Myanmar—President Barack Obama Friday reinforced the perception that a New York Times journalist won't be thrown in jail for refusing to identify his confidential sources for a book that allegedly contained highly classified information provided by a Central Intelligence Agency officer.

Discussion: @hunt_collin, Associated Press and USA Today

David Lieberman / Deadline:

CBS Warns That Its Stations Might Go Dark On Dish Network — Here we go: CBS introduced a web site today warning Dish Network customers that when its carriage deal expires this month the No. 2 satellite company “may drop” the network-owned stations in 14 cities including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit.

Discussion: @tv_agent, Variety and Los Angeles Times

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Why Is Investor Shervin Pishevar Amassing a Stake in Demand Media? He Likes the CEO. — Shervin Pishevar, the Silicon Valley investor who has put early money in hot startups like Uber, is making an unusual play of late by buying up shares of much beleaguered content and e-commerce company Demand Media.

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

SiriusXM Slammed Yet Again As New York Judge Rules in Turtles Lawsuit — The use of pre-1972 sound recordings keeps getting more and more hot — For the third time in as many months, SiriusXM has been rocked with a court ruling over the issue of pre-1972 sound recordings.

Discussion: @lamyj and Reuters

Mary Emily O'Hara / VICE:

The ACLU Is Fighting to Keep Revenge Porn Safe and Legal for Pervs — A federal bill that would criminalize revenge porn is currently on the table, with Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) likely set to introduce it by the year's end. But in order to make it through the crucible of free-speech …

Discussion: @csoghoian and @jilliancyork

Hollywood Reporter:

DreamWorks Animation and Hasbro End Merger Talks (Exclusive) — Shares of the toymaker fell when Wall Street learned of a potential deal — Hasbro has called off merger negotiations with DreamWorks Animation, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. — The deal chatter, which became public on Wednesday …

Discussion: Variety, New York Times, @rwmead and Los Angeles Times

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Layoffs hit CNBC.com, with about eight people losing jobs — Layoffs at CNBC.com — Layoffs have hit CNBC.com, TVNewser has learned. Around eight staffers have been cut. — At the same time, CNBC.com is adding to the roster. Eric Chemi is joining as senior editor-at-large of Data Journalism.

Discussion: Business Insider, BuzzFeed, @kimbhasin, @jeffallenlive and Talking Biz News

Bill Mickey / Folio:

WhoSay Boosts Distribution Through Huffington Post, Flipboard and Tango Partnerships — Celebs can post content directly to media platforms. — Celebrity social posts, whether ill-advised or perfectly orchestrated, are engagement gold. And WhoSay, a distributor of celebrity-provided social content …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter

Nina Mandell / USA Today:

A New York Times story about Florida State was marked as spam on Twitter — The New York Times released a story on Friday about two incidents where Florida State football players were given minor traffic citations instead of being charged with hit-and-runs after abandoning their cars following late-night crashes.

Discussion: New York Times, New York Times, Poynter, SI.com, Talking Points Memo, PandoDaily, SBNation.com and abc7.com

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Everyone Fails at Local News Online. Former TechCrunch Boss Eric Eldon Thinks He'll Get It Right. — There are lots of successful tech news sites. Eric Eldon used to run a really big one. — There are barely any successful local news sites. But that's what Eldon is trying do now.

Discussion: TechCrunch, @ashleymayer, @eldon, @davewiner, @jacob, Otherwise E, @joshelman, @laurengoode, @weberwest and @rafat

Eric Eldon:
Eric Eldon joins Hoodline, a San Francisco neighborhood blog, as Editor-In-Chief

Discussion: @jasonkincaid and @caseynewton

Chris Morran / Consumerist:

CBS, Disney, others get court to temporarily block FCC disclosure of how much cable giants pay for programming in merger review — Broadcasters Get Court To Stop Consumers From Seeing How Much Cable Companies Pay For Content — The FCC is currently mulling over whether to give its stamp …

Discussion: @byersalex, Deadline and Bloomberg