Mediagazer: Walt Mossberg's final Wall Street Journal column looks back on two decades of tech (Rich McCormick/The Verge)

7:00 AM ET, December 18, 2013

Top News:

Second worst year on record for jailed journalists — For the second consecutive year, Turkey was the world's leading jailer of journalists, followed closely by Iran and China. The number of journalists in prison globally decreased from a year earlier but remains close to historical highs.

Discussion: Guardian, Guardian, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, The Times of Israel, India & World and Committee to Protect …

Al Jazeera English:

Over 200 journalists still jailed worldwide — Turkey, Iran and China top list of world's worst jailers of journalists in 2013, with most held on anti-state charges. — Turkey, Iran, and China accounted for more than half of the over 200 journalists still imprisoned worldwide as of December 1 …

Reuters:

Al Jazeera weighs bid for $1 billion Turkish pay-TV firm Digiturk: sources — (Reuters) - Television broadcaster Al Jazeera is considering a bid for a majority stake in Turkish digital pay-TV operator Digiturk, three banking sources aware of the plans said, in a move by the Qatar-backed broadcaster to further expand its footprint.

Peter Osnos / The Atlantic:

Beijing and Moscow's media crackdown has deflected attention away from Washington's own shoddy treatment of journalists — Beijing and Moscow's media crackdown has deflected attention away from Washington's own shoddy treatment of journalists. — While much of the recent attention focused …

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

Hunter Walk:

$400 for The Information Is About What's Missing, Not What's There — What are we, less than two week's into Jessica Lessin's launch of The Information? As a subscriber I've read every article and enjoyed the majority. I applaud Jessica for staking out a high pricepoint …

Discussion: @jason_kint and @monkbent

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.

Thanks:@mathewi

Jim Schachter / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Breaking audio out of radio's boundaries — What do I think 2014 will bring for the future of news? — You can detect the near-term future in what we can see with our own eyes right now. When I was an editor at The New York Times, I gradually watched the newspapers on my morning train commute give way to smartphones and tablets.

Discussion: @markstencel

Brian Morrissey / Digiday:

Bloomberg Media Poaches GE Exec Paul Marcum — Newly installed Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith has made his first major hire in his tenure with the addition of GE marketing exec Paul Marcum. — Marcum, a three-year veteran of GE, will join Bloomberg on Jan. 13 as its head of global digital innovation …

Rich McCormick / The Verge:

Walt Mossberg's final Wall Street Journal column looks back on two decades of tech — After 22 years of insightful and important commentary on consumer technology, Walt Mossberg has written his final column for The Wall Street Journal and its All Things D tech blog.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @waltmossberg and Cult of Mac

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

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, Softpedia News, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Angela Washeck / 10,000 Words:

Ebyline Launches Pitch Board to Better Connect Seasoned Freelancers and Publishers — It can be hard out there for a freelancer. The avalanche of emails, stiff competition, low pay and ignored invoices all make it a real challenge. — That's why Ebyline, a conduit between digital publishers and writers …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Lost Remote

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

Natasha Clark / Press Gazette:

Croydon Citizen launches print edition after hitting £2,000 crowdfunding target — Online news magazine The Croydon Citizen is launching its first print edition today after raising more than £2,000 via a crowdfunding website. — The free magazine will be handed out at train stations …