Mediagazer: The tablet magazine ship is sinking. Fast. (Eddie Vassallo/Gigaom)

4:30 AM ET, December 17, 2013

Top News:

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Federal Judge Rules Against N.S.A. Phone Data Program — WASHINGTON — A Federal District Court judge ruled on Monday that the National Security Agency program that is systematically keeping records of all Americans' phone calls most likely violates the Constitution, and he ordered the government …

Guardian:
Edward Snowden says judge's ruling vindicates NSA surveillance disclosures

Discussion: @tnyjohncassidy, TechCrunch, TIME, @miriamelder and @ggreenwald

Michele McLellan / Knight Digital Media Center:

Patch: Learning the hard way in local news — If the latest from David Carr doesn't mark the final nail in the coffin of Patch, it's pretty darn close. Carr quotes AOL CEO Tim Armstrong acknowledging that AOL cannot continue “to go it alone in what has been a futile attempt to guide Patch to profitability.”

Discussion: The Switch, @jcstearns, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, @daveambrose, @michaelroston and @shacker

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
The almost-post mortem for Patch

Discussion: @the_fjp, @dangillmor, @jayrosen_nyu, @jeffjarvis, @nycjim, @romenesko, @thefix, @geostanley and @kbeninato

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
LEAKED MEMO: Patch Execs Tell Employees Patch Is Not Dead, Despite What They Read In The New York Times

Gautham Nagesh / Wall Street Journal:

FCC Withdraws Proposal to Relax Media-Ownership Rules — Proposal Would Have Relaxed Ban on Owning Multiple Media Outlets in Same Market … The Federal Communications Commission said it has withdrawn a proposal to relax the long-standing ban on owning multiple media outlets in the same market.

Discussion: Adweek

Meg Graham / Chicago Grid:

Comcast could resurrect community news site EveryBlock starting in Chicago — EveryBlock is back from the dead — Ten months after being shut down and left for dead, community-news website EveryBlock is being resurrected. — Comcast, which owned EveryBlock when it was shut down in January …

Discussion: @abillionsuns, @lyzidiamond, @me3dia, @the_fjp and @antderosa

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Exclusive: Twitter working on “edit” feature for tweets — Twitter is working on a new feature that would allow users to edit tweets once they are published, three sources close to the project have confirmed to The Desk. — Those sources, who asked to be identified only as Twitter employees …

Discussion: Gigaom, CNET, VatorNews, @kashhill, @ksablan, @politwoops, @mat, @craigsilverman, @stevebuttry and The Next Web

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Almost Half of The Huffington Post's Traffic Comes From Overseas — The Huffington Post is fast becoming an international media brand. It now publishes eight editions outside the U.S. and expects to export its celebrity, news and aggregation model to Brazil, South Korea, India and possibly the Middle East in 2014.

Discussion: @muckety, @aoladvertising, @justin_b_smith and @niemanlab

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Lara Logan to return to ‘60 Minutes’ — Lara Logan and Max McClellan, the ‘60 Minutes’ journalists who were put on a leave of absence following their now-retracted report on Benghazi, are set to return to the program early next year, POLITICO has learned. — Logan and her producer …

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser, The Raw Story and @tvnewslab

Eddie Vassallo / Gigaom:

The tablet magazine ship is sinking. Fast. — Last month I published a post on my company blog that caused some (shall we say) interesting feedback from both our publisher clients as well as the broader media community. While I was certainly not the first to proclaim the death of the tablet magazine …

Discussion: @clarajeffery and Anna Wahrman

Brian R. Fitzgerald / Digits:

WSJ hires editors from ABC News and NBC News as gadget reviewer Walt Mossberg leaves the team — WSJ Announces Personal Tech Reviewing Team — Today we are announcing expanded Wall Street Journal coverage of personal technology, to help readers everywhere understand and choose among …

Discussion: @linecook, @gregbensinger, @ohnorosco, @joannastern, @shiraovide, @fmanjoo, @geoffreyfowler, @scottmaustin, @reckless and Talking Biz News

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Yahoo, NBC extend partnership to Olympics but most programming requires pay-TV subscription — Olympics to Stream Live on Yahoo via NBC Deal? Not Quite — Peacock extends pact with Internet site to drive traffic to NBCOlympics.com — NBCUniversal extended its pact with Yahoo …

Discussion: Yahoo, NBC Olympics, MediaPost, BroadwayWorld.com, SportsBusiness Daily, Multichannel.com, @zseward, Deadline.com, The Next Web, FierceCable and The Wrap

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Anonymous sources are increasing in news stories, along with rather curious explanations — According to sources who didn't insist on anonymity, more and more sources are speaking to the news media on the condition of anonymity for the oddest of reasons. — Politico, for example …

Discussion: www.wnyc.org

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

If Time Inc wants to survive, it should create its own ad agency — In the Darwinian battle between media, an in-house, clever advertising agency could save the flailing business — I keep thinking about the existential predicament of working for Time Inc in 2014, as it gets ready to spin …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA

John Woodrow Cox / Poynter:

How Sports Illustrated reporter captured the athlete in ‘The Book of Tebow’ — Earlier this year, Sports Illustrated writer Thomas Lake embarked on a challenging project: to profile Tim Tebow, an athlete who's been covered as thoroughly as any in America and who didn't want Lake to write about him.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Guardian U.S. C.E.O. out after short stint — Guardian Media Group's U.S. boss is leaving the company after just a little more than a year on the job. — Michael Bloom, C.E.O. of Guardian U.S., The Guardian's American-facing digital website, “will leave the company to pursue other opportunities …

Discussion: @joepompeo, mUmBRELLA and Media Guido

Lara O'Reilly / Marketing Week:
Guardian promotes chief commercial officer David Pemsel to deputy chief executive

Discussion: Guardian and @marketingweeked

Richard Johnson / New York Post:

60 Minutes reporter John Miller currently negotiating new intelligence job with NYPD — CBS newsman John Miller is negotiating his exit as a senior correspondent to join his old friend Bill Bratton back at the Police Department, a reliable source tells me.