Mediagazer: Speculation swirls about Rusbridger's successor (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

9:05 AM ET, December 11, 2014

Top News:

Allie Townsend / Facebook Media:

Facebook releases new tools for publishers to offer greater automation and better targeting, improves Insights, fixes referrer data bug for iOS — New Tools and Insights for Publishers — Over the past few months, we've listened to publishers around the world to better understand …

Discussion: AdAge, Marketing Land, Marketing Land, The Next Web, Mashable, Digiday, @sriramk, AllFacebook, @kelseyproud, @andrewmdooley, @lavrusik, @stkonrath and Poynter

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

New tools amplify Facebook's effort to encourage publishers to move more content onto its site — Facebook Gives Publishers More Tools as Part of Content Push — Facebook has been courting content companies for years, because it wants content companies to bring more of their content to Facebook.

Discussion: Digiday, @carr2n, @reynoldscj, @ahenkin, @niemanlab, @mikeisaac, @mattbuchanan, @mims and @jaynawallace

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:
Facebook expanding Trending to mobile and separates news from what friends are discussing

Discussion: Facebook, @lheron, @samir, @jimmacmillan, @fieldproducer, The Whip, AllFacebook, Mashable, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and @jayrosen_nyu

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Speculation swirls about Rusbridger's successor — Alan Rusbridger's 20-year Guardian editorship nears its end — Alan Rusbridger, longtime editor in chief of The Guardian and the embodiment of its modern era, will step down from his post in summer 2015 to become chair of the Scott Trust …

Discussion: Poynter and New Statesman

Ian Burrell / The Independent:
Alan Rusbridger to quit as ‘Guardian’ editor-in-chief after 20 years in role next summer

Guardian:
Alan Rusbridger appointed chair of The Scott Trust

Discussion: @arusbridger, The Huffington Post, @lisaappignanesi, @mannmuller and @katz

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Google News to shut down in Spain Dec. 16 in response to recently passed Spanish copyright law — Strict New “Copyright Law” Forces End Of Google News In Spain — Google has decided to shut down Google News in Spain. This drastic step will occur next week (December 16) …

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Netflix wants its app on cable providers' set-top boxes, may be nearing a deal with AT&T — Netflix wants to hook up with your cable company in 2015 — Netflix's new strategy to take on cable involves becoming best friends with cable: The video streaming service has been working hard …

Alex Howard / E Pluribus Unum:

Deadline is Thursday for US House to pass Freedom of Information law reforms — With hours of sunshine left, passage of FOIA reform in the U.S. House hangs in the balance — Imagine if an important reform to public access to government information hung in the balance in the United States Congress …

Discussion: Washington Post, Sunlight Foundation Blog, Sunlight Foundation Blog, Washington Free Beacon, OpenTheGovernment.org, @digiphile, @danielschuman, @astepanovich, @normative, @cbdawson and @digiphile

Al Jazeera English:

Mahran Al Deeri of the Al Jazeera Arabic website dies while covering battles in city of Al Sheikh Maskin in rural Daraa. — Al Jazeera Media Network has announced the death of its Arabic correspondent in Syria, Mahran Al Deeri, while covering battles in the city of Al Sheikh Maskin in rural Daraa.

Discussion: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Premium Times Nigeria, International Business Times and @asher_wolf

Matthew Zeitlin / BuzzFeed:

Bloomberg Passed Over Its Top Woman Editor In Hiring A New Boss — When the memo dropped on Tuesday morning, Bloomberg's Manhattan newsroom went silent. Office banter ceased and keyboards stopped clacking, as reporters and editors read the note from Michael Bloomberg announcing …

Discussion: @katienotopoulos, @thatcaseyquin, @emersongreg, @doreeshafrir, @sdkstl and Wall Street Journal

John Waggoner / USA Today:
Bloomberg and Businessweek to merge websites into renamed Bloomberg Business

Discussion: @joepompeo, Financial Times, FishbowlNY, Poynter, Talking Biz News, @joshuatopolsky and The Daily Beast

Re/code:

Sources: Sony Pictures using AWS to execute denial-of-service attack on sites where its stolen data is available — Sony Pictures Tries to Disrupt Downloads of its Stolen Files — Sony Pictures Entertainment is fighting back. — The studio behind the “Spider-Man” franchise and …

Reuters:

Dish wants to keep broadcasters out of basic Web TV service -WSJ — Dish Network Corp does not want to include broadcast channels in the basic package for its planned online TV service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Ars Technica, PC World and Wall Street Journal

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

Met accused of illegally accessing 20m News UK email records as it fights legal bid to return them — News UK handed over physical possession of ‘back-up’ tapes for ‘political’ reasons during hacking scandal — Met Police did not seek ‘judicial approval’ for access to tapes containing data from 2,000 systems

Press Association:

UK Home Office draft code of conduct would allow police access to journalist's phone records — Home Office draft code of conduct raises concern with media bodies — Draft publication states that communications data is not subject to professional privilege, as NUJ calls for ‘shield law’ to protect reporters from state snooping