Mediagazer: How Facebook is courting publishers (John McDermott/Digiday)

6:45 PM ET, September 25, 2014

Top News:

Google responds to News Corp's claim that it is a platform for piracy — Dear Rupert — Last week, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp sent an open letter to the European Commission complaining about Google. We wanted to share our perspective so you can judge the arguments on their merits. — News Corp:

Discussion: The Next Web, BetaNews, @wblau, ValueWalk, CNBC, TorrentFreak, City A.M., @mattcutts, BBC, Bloomberg, @markscott82, Talking New Media, Hollywood Reporter, Independent.ie, Financial Times, Guardian, 9to5Google and The Drum

Jeremy Barr / Capital New York:

Obama's media diet: heavy on print/online news, light on TV — Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director-turned assistant to the president, shed some light on his boss' media habits during a Q&A session at Buzzfeed headquarters Thursday morning.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @mattyglesias, @tmcgev, @huffpostmedia, @raju and @joelcifer

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer: media relations are trickier now due to fast news cycle and social media that competes with legacy outlets to set agenda — Top Obama Adviser Dan Pfeiffer Dismisses ‘Fake’ Media Uproar Over ‘Latte Salute’ — NEW YORK — Dan Pfeiffer said Thursday that the president's …

Discussion: @buzzfeedben and ABC News

Richard Deitsch / Sports Illustrated:

Top ESPN executives were involved in Simmons suspension from all platforms, including podcast, Facebook and Twitter — ESPN suspends Bill Simmons for criticism of Roger Goodell — One of the most popular figures in sports media dared ESPN management to take him to task for his comments …

Tony Manfred / Business Insider:
Bill Simmons Got Suspended For Going After ESPN, Not The NFL

Discussion: New Yorker, Poynter, Wall Street Journal, @thestalwart, @needham_chris, @tonymanfred, Deadspin, @jyarow and @hblodget

Evan McMurry / Mediaite:
ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons 3 Weeks for Goodell Rant

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

New York Times Magazine prepares for 2015 redesign, replacing One-Page Magazine and Who Made That features — ‘Cleaning up’ at The New York Times Magazine — The New York Times Magazine is gearing up for a big redesign in early 2015. But editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein tells Capital …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @gregorydjohnsen and MediaWire Daily

James Ball / Guardian:

The global news agenda is now regularly held hostage by small bands of loud but tech-savvy idiots. We can do better than this — The global news agenda is now regularly held hostage by small bands of loud but tech-savvy idiots. We can do better than this — The internet is eating itself.

Discussion: @marklittlenews, AndyDickinson.net, @willmcavoyacn, @mathewi, NME News, @dabeard, New York Magazine, Business Insider, BuzzFeed and SocialTimes

Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times:

FAA gives drone exemption to Hollywood production firms — Hollywood will soon have a new angle on capturing aerial footage. — The Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday that it has approved exemptions that would allow filmmakers to use “unmanned aircraft systems,” otherwise known as drones.

Aaron Couch / Hollywood Reporter:

Twitter to serve targeted ads for movies, beta testing will begin in the next few months — Twitter to Launch Targeted Ads for Movies (Exclusive) — Studios wanting to advertise an upcoming space epic could target users tweeting about ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and Groot

Discussion: @tperzyk, @twitterads, Los Angeles Times, Variety and TIME

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Netflix subscribers stream more than 90 minutes a day globally, 45 GB of data every month — Binge alert: Subscribers now watch more than 90 minutes of Netflix every single day — Just one more episode: All of your binge watching is adding up, to an average of 93 minutes of Netflix viewing per day …

Discussion: Variety, TDG Research and Consumerist

John McDermott / Digiday:

How Facebook is courting publishers — Over the past year, Facebook has for many publishers supplanted Google as the most important driver of referral traffic. — Much of that is due to the various changes Facebook has made to its news feed to more prominently feature publishers' stories.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @digiday and @raju

Jim Romenesko:

Times of London quietly pulls the plug on typewriter sounds in the newsroom — Message from an American Journalism Review intern — into its newsroom to generate some excitement. I sent an email to Times spokesperson Jessica Carsen and she wrote back: “Ah - the lovely sound of typewriters.

Anne Gearan / Washington Post:

Iranian leader pledges no help to detained Washington Post reporter — NEW YORK — Iran's president would not promise Wednesday to intervene in or to speed up the legal case against a Washington Post reporter who has been detained in that country for more than two months.