Top News:

He Was Fired: Here's Marissa Mayer's De Castro Buh-Bye Memo to Yahoo Staff — Here it is, the internal memo to Yahoo staff about the sudden — though it was not sudden, by any means — leave-taking today of its COO, Henrique De Castro, courtesy of one of my 10,563 sources left at Yahoo!
Discussion:
Softpedia News, VentureBeat, @alexia, Business Insider, @danprimack and @ashleymayer
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Yahoo COO Henrique De Castro, Mayer's No. 2, to depart after failing to move lagging ad business — “Dead Man Walking” Walks: COO Henrique De Castro Out at Yahoo — As has long been rumored, Yahoo COO Henrique De Castro is departing Yahoo. — I had reported last week that he was in big trouble …
Discussion:
Forbes, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Media Wire Daily, Los Angeles Times, CNET, Wall Street Journal, AdAge, Adweek, Valleywag, Fortune, Business Insider, The Wrap and Quartz

FCC's Wheeler can preserve net neutrality by taking back its authority over broadband — Closing Time for the Open Internet — Since 1970 or so, carriers like A. T. & T. and Verizon have been barred from blocking or degrading whatever is transported over their lines.
Discussion:
Gigaom, The Switch, Crikey, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Globe and Mail, The New Republic, Free Press Blog, TheHill, Ars Technica, @superwuster, NYT Bits, Salon, @mathewi, Home Media Magazine, ABC, Official FCC Blog, Digits, BuzzFeed and Guardian
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Net Neutrality and the Future of Journalism — Tuesday's court decision, which struck down the FCC's Open Internet Order and threatened the future of Net Neutrality, has huge implications for the future of journalism and press freedom. — According to the Pew Research Center …
Discussion:
Gigaom and Consumerist

Will Beats Music trump Spotify with its artist charm offensive? — Dr Dre and Trent Reznor are launching a US streaming service - but artists are likely to lose out again due to labels' royalty deals — The music streaming market is becoming a crowded place, but that hasn't stopped Beats Music getting in on the game.
Discussion:
Pocket-lint
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Spotify introduces unlimited free music on the web just days before Beats Music launch — The nice thing about raising $250 million is that it lets you offer your customers services that few competitors can match. Spotify, which is riding high after completing a massive fundraising round in November …
Discussion:
Spotify Blog, TechCrunch and Gizmodo

AOL hands over control of Patch to investment fund Hale Global, keeps small stake — AOL Finds a Home — Off Its Books — For Patch — Patch isn't dead, and AOL isn't officially done with it. But Tim Armstrong's big bet on local news has come to an end: The AOL CEO is handing over Patch …
Discussion:
New York Times, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Forbes, Poynter, Business Wire, @pkafka, @poynter, AdExchanger, @edmundlee, CNET, Capital New York, Reuters and Wall Street Journal
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Capital New York to Introduce Monthly Print Magazine — Capital New York, the Politico sibling that covers politics and media in New York, is rolling out a small monthly print magazine starting this month, according to parent company Allbritton Communications.
Discussion:
@joepompeo
Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:
Top editors at Washington Post, Politico talk after Wemple scrutinizes Mike Allen's Playbook — Washington Post and Politico Talk About a Rift — Top editors at The Washington Post and Politico tried on Wednesday to mend a rift between the two news organizations.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, @buzzfeedandrew, @ravisomaiya, @erik_hayden, Poynter and Politico
Susan Currie Sivek / Mediashift:
Digital Technology Remodels Women's Magazines — Women's magazines are full of fashion, beauty and relationship tips. However, studying them has also taught one researcher a lot about their future, and about the future of the magazine industry as a whole.

How Kevin Reilly Is Changing Up Fox's Game, and What That May Mean for the TV Industry — As the broadcast net moves away from pilot season, its decisions are really and truly about quality. — Fox's Kevin Reilly — Whenever change comes to the resistant television industry, it comes slow.
Discussion:
Forbes
Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The New York Times' R&D Lab is building a quantified-self, semantic-analysis tool to track web browsing — Let's say you work in a modern digital newsroom. Your colleagues are looking at interesting stuff online all day long — reading stimulating news stories, searching down rabbit holes you've never thought of.
Discussion:
Co.Labs

Rep. Waxman on Tribune Meeting: ‘My Concern About the Fate of the Los Angeles Times Was Not Alleviated’ — Rep. Henry Waxman said Wednesday that his staff had a “helpful meeting” with the general counsel and the chief financial officer of the Tribune Co., but his concerns remain …
Discussion:
LA Observed and Politico

How a free email newsletter turned a computer programmer into a Newsweek columnist — Being on Twitter can sometimes feel a little like being in a high school cafeteria. — There's chatter all around you, and there's always a joke you're not in on. On Twitter, everyone's always mad about something …
Discussion:
@mattbuchanan, Business Insider and Fast Company

Jana Winter Voices Support for Bill Seeking to Strengthen Colorado Shield Laws — FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter has submitted a written statement of support to the Colorado Senate Judiciary committee for a bill that would strengthen the state's media shield laws.
Liz Goodwin / Yahoo! News:
Why isn't the media allowed to talk to Guantanamo detainees? — GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — It's now been more than 12 years since the first terror suspects arrived at what was then a makeshift, open-air military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Since then, thousands of journalists …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, @yahoonews, Latest News & Headlines, TheBlaze.com, @brianstelter, @lizcgoodwin and @stuartmillar159

Start small, plan big: How two nonprofit education sites came together to build a network — What started out as two independent nonprofit news sites is now a network of four — with aims to grow larger. — Chalkbeat, the nonprofit education reporting partnership that grew out of GothamSchools …
Discussion:
@stanforded, @chalkbeat and @matthewshaer

Viddy, the “Instagram for Video” That Wasn't, Acquired by Web Video Startup Fullscreen — Remember Viddy? — Back in 2012, the video-sharing app was growing like a weed, and lots of smart money bet that it would become an “Instagram for video.” Then Facebook, which had been fueling Viddy's rise …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter and The Verge

TheWrap Beats Deadline Hollywood and Variety's Web Traffic in December — TheWrap is pleased to announce that it has achieved its highest traffic month in the history of the site, surpassing both industry trades Variety and Deadline. — According to comScore, TheWrap scored 3.4 million unique visitors …
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Google brings Play Movies and TV to iOS — Google has been bringing more and more of its services to iOS over the years, and a new one just launched today: users can now play back movies and TV shows they've purchased from Google Play on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Discussion:
Gizmodo
Nicole Levy / Capital New York:
Vanity Fair launches Hollywood vertical — Last year, Vanity Fair hired Mike Hogan from The Huffington Post as digital director, and charged him with a familiar task at many legacy magazine publishers these days. — “The idea was to grow VanityFair.com over the course of the next year …
Discussion:
Columbia University …, @ceodonovan, @anastasiaashman, FishbowlNY, Capital New York and @jbenton

Phone-hacking trial: judge admonishes police expert witness — Forensic engineer admits making mistakes in interpretation of data on mobile phone movements near Rebekah Brooks's home — The judge in the phone-hacking trial has admonished a police witness after he admitted to making three mistakes …
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