Chief of News Corp. Unit in Britain Is Resigning

Tom Mockridge, a longtime News Corporation official who served as chief executive of the company's British newspapers in the aftermath of a phone hacking scandal, will step down.

Mr. Mockridge announced on Sunday that he would leave his post at the end of year. The day before, reports emerged that Robert Thomson, currently the top editor at The Wall Street Journal, was expected to be named chief executive of News Corporation's planned spinoff publishing company. Mr. Mockridge and Mr. Thomson had long been considered the top candidates for the chief executive job. An announcement about Mr. Thomson's appointment was widely expected by Monday or Tuesday.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, called Mr. Mockridge “a skilled executive and a trusted friend” and said his decision to step down was “absolutely and entirely his own.”

Mr. Mockridge stepped into the role of chief executive of News Corporation's British publishing u nit, News International, last July. He served as a steady hand at a time of corporate crisis. His predecessor as chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, and other top News International executives became the subject of an investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid.

More recently, Mr. Mockridge has been active in the recently completed Leveson Inquiry into media practices in Britain. Several top lieutenants within the company thought Mr. Mockridge's time overseeing the company's embattled British newspaper unit would ultimately pay off with his appointment as chief executive to the larger, spun-off publishing company, which will include The Journal, The New York Post and HarperCollins.

Born in New Zealand, Mr. Mockridge joined News Corporation in Australia in 1991. In a news release, News Corporation said he planned to “pursue outside opportunities.”

A Book by Two From Google Takes a Deep Look at the Web

“The Internet is the largest experiment involving anarchy in history,” begins a new book written by two top Google executives, which aims to explain how this experiment will play out in politics, business and even personal lives.

Google Eric E. Schmidt helped build Google into a powerhouse.

Google Jared Cohen once worked at the State Department.

Alfred A. Knopf publishers, a Rando m House imprint, said it would publish the book, titled “The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business,” in April.

While the book is not about Google, it does hope to benefit from the cachet of the Google executives who collaborated to write it: Eric E. Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, and Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas.

It grows out of an essay the two wrote for the November 2010 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine called  “The Digital Disruption.” The article, which appeared before the citizen revolutions in the Middle East, was considered prescient because it predicted technology would empower citizens to stand up to despotism.

This is the first book by Mr. Schmidt, who helped build Google into a technology powerhouse.

Mr. Cohen, who once worked at the State Department, has written books about the genocide in Rwanda and his travels in the Middle East.

Knopf, confident that the book will be a big seller, has ordered a first printing of 150,000 copies. It will also be released simultaneously in e-book and audio format.

As befits a book with large sales ambitions, “The New Digital Age” promises to be broad in scope, taking in how technologies will shape business and politics. According to the publicity materials, it will touch on future considerations such as how to curate an online identity, and it will also predict who will gain power from the Web.

“Almost nothing, short of a biological virus, can scale as quickly, efficiently or aggressively as these technology platforms,” the authors write, referring to Google, Apple and Facebook, among others, “and this makes the people who build, control and use them powerful, too.”

A Cleveland Newspaper Takes Steps to Prevent Cuts

While workers at many newspapers owned by Advance Publications have tried to brace themselves for what seems to be the inevitable - layoffs and the end of a daily print product - reporters and editors at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland are fighting back in an unusual way: they are taking their case directly to the public.

The staff there has started a campaign to rally community support and to try to prevent cuts like the ones Advance has made in other cities. Using money provided by Local 1 of the Newspaper Guild and a grant from the Communications Workers of America, organizers have produced a television commercial, created a Facebook page that has attracted nearly 4,000 “likes” and started a petition that has nearly 6,000 signatures so far. They have also enlisted some celebrities, like the “Hot in Cleveland” star Valerie Bertinelli, to support their cause.

“We've been surprised and gratified and really humbled by the amount of response we've gotten, ” said John Mangels, a science writer for the paper who is involved in the organizing efforts.

It is not clear whether these measures will be enough to preserve The Plain Dealer as a daily newspaper. According to the Alliance for Audited Media, the paper's Monday through Friday circulation declined 19 percent, to 293,139 from 363,750, over the last decade. In January, a three-year agreement between the paper and the guild will end. That agreement promised that there would be no layoffs in exchange for the guild accepting furloughs and 12 percent pay cuts; now, Mr. Mangels said, the staff has been warned that layoffs are inevitable.

Among the more lively efforts to stave off a reduction in the print schedule is a “Save The Plain Dealer” party planned for Thursday night at the Market Garden Brewery and Distillery. The brewery is releasing a new beer, 7-Day Lager, which it says is “best when enjoyed daily, because one a day keeps ignorance at bay.” A local musician, Alex Bevan, who wrote a song called “Ink on Paper,” will perform.

Sam McNulty, one of the owners of the Market Garden Brewery and a former delivery boy for The Plain Dealer, said he just wanted to see the paper survive. He said he had invited Steve Newhouse, chairman of Advance.net, the corporate digital arm of Advance Publications, to the party and offered to pay for his plane ticket.

Mr. Newhouse declined to say whether he would attend Thursday's event, and referred a reporter to local management. But in an e-mail to Mr. McNulty, Mr. Newhouse said the company was “working to develop a localized approach that will allow us to continue to fulfill our commitment to quality journalism in an increasingly digital world.” He added, “I support the work of our team in Cleveland and have passed on your input to them.”