Mediagazer: Rafat Ali to join Investigative News Network Board (Lisa Williams/Investigative News Network)

8:55 PM ET, December 17, 2013

Top News:

Tom Phillips / BuzzFeed:

How The Media Will Report The Apocalypse — It's the end of the world as we know it. In early 2014, a series of devastating catastrophes bring about Armageddon. Papers of record like the New York Times soberly report this news. The Guardian tries to provide comprehensive live coverage of the end of days.

Discussion: @cosmos4u, @karaswisher, @dollyalderton, @nytopinion, @elanazak, @georgemonbiot, @penguingalaxy, @finsjesse, @laurakeeney, @louispeitzman, @bruce_arthur and @newsmary

Alastair Reid / Journalism.co.uk:

Brown Moses to launch site for open investigative journalism — The Syrian conflict blogger and munitions investigator Eliot Higgins, better known as Brown Moses, is set to launch a new website as a platform and resource for open, investigative journalism in early 2014.

Discussion: @antderosa, @brown_moses, @sunny_hundal, @niemanlab and @azmatzahra

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Media organizations meet with White House over access — Representatives of major media organizations met Tuesday afternoon with members of the White House press office for an hour at the White House to begin discussions on increasing press access to the president.

Discussion: @markknoller

Donald R. Winslow / NPPA:
Media Coalition Meets With White House Press Office Over Obama Access

Discussion: Hit & Run and The FJP

John Paton / Digital First:

MediaNews Group and 21st Century Media to merge under Digital First Media — The First Step On The Rest of the Journey — Sometimes a press release just isn't enough to say what has happened. — Or can do justice on how important this new development truly is to our company.

Discussion: Digital First Media, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @jeffjarvis and NetNewsCheck Latest

Anneta Konstantinides / ABC News:

Mike Huckabee to Launch ‘Huckabee Post’ — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will launch a news publication “Huckabee Post” in January 2014, ABC News has learned. — The site will cover a range of topics from news and politics to sports and pop culture, according to the former governor's son, David Huckabee.

Discussion: Fox News, TVNewser, TruthRevolt.org, TheBlaze.com, FishbowlNY, The Epoch Times, Washington Post, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Politico, @gma, @abbydphillip, @mckaycoppins, @samsteinhp and The Huffington Post

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

Snowden Not Renewing Request For Asylum In Brazil, Greenwald Says — Brazil has been one of the most outspoken opponents of NSA spying. Glenn Greenwald says Edward Snowden's letter to the people of Brazil has been “wildly misreported.” — WASHINGTON — Glenn Greenwald says Edward Snowden's letter …

Discussion: New York Times, WorldViews, Techdirt, @ggreenwald, The Switch, USA Today, NBCNews, Mashable, The Daily Caller, Gawker, TheHill, @rosiegray and New York Times

Darren Boyle / Press Gazette:
Guardian whistle-blower Edward Snowden offers to help Brazil investigate US spying in return for asylum

Discussion: USA Today, Latest News & Headlines, @ggreenwald, TechCrunch, CNET, The Verge, Reuters, Telegraph, Softpedia News, Techdirt, ZDNet and Guardian

Lisa Williams / Investigative News Network:

Rafat Ali to join Investigative News Network Board — Entrepreneur Rafat Ali is joining the board of the Investigative News Network. Ali, who is currently the CEO of Skift, a media startup that covers the travel & leisure industry, was also the founder of PaidContent …

Discussion: @kljdavis, @vivianschiller, @raju, @vosdscott, @rafat and @dangillmor

Arjun Narayan / Guardian:

Despite rise of Android tablets, Google still isn't serving magazine publishers — Opinion: Google must do more to help magazine publishers if digital editions are to flourish on the Android platform — This year, Android-powered tablets began outselling Apple's iPads for the first time.

Thanks:@bhatnaturally

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

Discussion: @zimbalist, @newmanology, Anna Wahrman, @psmith and @clarajeffery

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Lessons in the crowdsourced verification of news from Storyful and Reddit's Syria forum — One of the most powerful trends in media over the past year is the crowdsourced verification of news, whether it's the work of a blogger like Brown Moses or former NPR journalist Andy Carvin.

Discussion: Storyful Blog, Thanks:@mathewi

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Continuing Its Public Content Push, Facebook Acquires SportStream — Twitter may still be synonymous with real-time, in-the-moment discussion. But that's hardly stopping Facebook from moving in on the territory. — Natch, Facebook announced on Tuesday it had acquired SportStream …

Discussion: facebook.com, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

CNN Films adds an acquisition unit — CNN is making a further push into the documentary film business with the creation of an acquisition unit. The cable news channel, which last year launched CNN Films to make and finance documentaries, will now also buy older documentaries for the network through …

Discussion: TVNewser, Deadline.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Realscreen, CNN, FishbowlDC and Capital New York

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Sun publisher posts £75m pre-tax loss — News Group Newspapers took charges related to the phone-hacking scandal of almost £90m in the year to 30 June — The parent company of the Sun and Sun on Sunday has reported a pre-tax loss of £75m in the year to 30 June …

Discussion: @tom_watson

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube Channel Now Playing on Roku — After three years of wrangling, Roku and YouTube have finally come to terms on a pact that will add access to the No. 1 Internet video site to the latest generation of the Roku set-top boxes. — The YouTube channel launched Tuesday on the Roku 3 in the U.S. …

Discussion: YouTube Creator Blog, VentureBeat, TIME, Gigaom and Pocket-lint