The media has many ways of battling budgetary issues, and in today’s mixed bag of media news, all of them are tested: merging newsrooms with websites, the popular layoff solution, the unpaid-vacation route, and the salary slash. But along the way, women are breaking barriers and D.C. is getting more Politico. The media fights back, after the jump.

• Two new managing editors at the Washington Post have been appointed to expedite the newsroom-online merger: The Wall Street Journal’s Raju Narisetti, and Elizabeth Spayd, the first woman to hold the position in the paper’s history. [WP]

• The Huffington Post has officially purchased the moderately popular but financially troubled humor website 23/6, but thirteen of the site’s staffers have been "released." [Mixed Media/Portfolio]

• Many media deathwatchers have been speculating about the possible collapse of debt-laden American Media (the company, that is). With bondholders adding new pressures and deadlines, a handful of AMI staffers are being let go, mainly from Star and Men’s Fitness. [Gawker]

• To cut back on expenses, the Gannett newspaper company has given all of its staffers a weeklong, unpaid vacation. [Editor & Publisher]

• Someone is growing! D.C.-based Starbucks coffeehouses will be handing out copies of the print Politico and hosting monthly conversations about Capitol Hill’s happenings along with it. [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]

• Garden & Gun magazine not only exists, but is still selling. The “Southern lifestyle” title, however, needs to find a new backer, as its publisher, Evening Post Publishers Co., can’t afford to produce it after March. [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]

• Does citizen journalism break tax laws? A new story asks: “How can a web site like Huffington Post be worth millions to investors and at the same time all of its donated content be worth zero on an individual basis?” Good question! [Stinky Journalism]