Mediagazer: Turning Gawker On Itself (Nick Summers/New York Observer)

11:50 AM ET, December 15, 2010

Top News:

Lev Grossman / Time:

Mark Zuckerberg — On the afternoon of Nov. 16, 2010, Mark Zuckerberg was leading a meeting in the Aquarium, one of Facebook's conference rooms, so named because it's in the middle of a huge work space and has glass walls on three sides so everybody can see in.

Keach Hagey / On Media's Blog:

Zuckerberg named Time's Person of the Year — Time magazine has named Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg Person of the Year, Rick Stengel announced on “Today.” — He overtook runners-up The Tea Party, Julian Assange, Hamid Karzai and The Chilean Miners.

Discussion: Time, The Wire, Mediaite and FP Passport

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Columbia j-school staff: WikiLeaks prosecution ‘will set a dangerous precedent’ — Romenesko Misc. — Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism faculty and officers tell President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder that “while we hold varying opinions of Wikileaks' methods and decisions …

Discussion: News: News blog, Sunlight Foundation Blog, New York Times, Salon, CJR, Daily Kos, New York Observer, Yahoo! News and American Journalism Review, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Air Force Blocks Sites With Leaked Cables — The U.S. Air Force is blocking its personnel from using work computers to view the websites of the New York Times and other major publications that have posted secret material obtained by Wikileaks, people familiar with the matter say.

Discussion: New York Times, The Wire, Reuters, Danger Room, Techdirt, Telegraph, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, TPMMuckraker, Guardian, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Gawker, VentureBeat, New York Observer and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

Apple Launches First IAd for IPad, for Disney's ‘Tron Legacy’ — Initial IAd for Apple's Tablet Is a Preview of What's Coming Next Year — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The first iAd for iPad will launch this afternoon for the upcoming Disney blockbuster “Tron Legacy.”

Discussion: SAI, IAB SmartBrief, MediaMemo, MediaPost, The Next Web, TechCrunch, paidContent, TUAW, MacRumors, eMedia Vitals, Digital Media Wire and Geekosystem

Jonathan Stray:

Does journalism work? — How do we know that the work that journalists do accomplishes anything at all? And what does journalism do, exactly, beyond vague statements like “supports democracy” and trivial ones like “gives me movie reviews”? — I made this image a couple months ago to introduce the question at a conference.

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Bloomberg Branches Out to Editorial Writing, Makes Two Big Hires — Bloomberg L.P. is making a foray into opinion writing, a move intended to further broaden the company's reach beyond its bread-and-butter financial news service. — The company has hired two big names — James P. Rubin …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

Twitter Launches Online Form to Buy Ads, Trending Topics & More — The business end of Twitter has revamped its website tonight and it now includes a form that companies can use to express interest in purchasing Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets or Promoted Trends.

Discussion: The Next Web, Twitter Blog, Mashable!, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Search Engine Land and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

Turning Gawker On Itself — It had been such a good week for Nick Denton. — Writers and editors from his network of sites had flown in from around the country and put up on Gawker's dime, in preparation for the 2011 relaunch of the site that launched the blogger age.

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Poynter

Daniel Kennedy / The Firewall:
Discussing Gawker's Breach With Founder Nick Denton

Discussion: Mixed Media, The Daily Beast, Computerworld, TechCrunch and New York Post, more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Cooper / Journal Register Company:

Journal Register Company's Open Newsroom Launches New Era In Community Journalism — Yardley, PA - Marking a new era in community journalism, Journal Register Company, a leading local news and information company, opened the doors of The Register Citizen's new, community-focused newsroom.

Thomas Pardee / AdAge:

Finding the Sweet Spot for Journalism and Social Media — Times Dissolves Social Media Editor Post While USA Today Adds One — and Journal Plugs Ahead — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The country's biggest newspapers are taking different tacks on social media.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

The Awl to start paying its writers in January — The Awl, Choire Sicha and Alex Balk's irreverent and idiosyncratic 2-year-old journalism start-up, will as of Jan. 1 start paying the writers who have helped turn the site into a culture and media must-read with half a million monthly visitors.

Discussion: New York Observer, Poynter and eMedia Vitals

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Look how many newspapers are still sold every day in the UK... How many people in Britain buy a newspaper every day? It's a question often asked and rarely answered with any authority. — I found myself floundering for an exact answer during a US radio broadcast at the weekend, guessing at about 12m.

Madhu Rajaraman / American Journalism Review:

The Comment Police — NPR says it's pleased with the results of its decision to outsource the battle against offensive online comments. Posted: Wed, Dec. 15 2010 — Madhu Rajaraman (mrajaraman@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — It was a victim of its own success.

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

WSJ's secret project to launch end of next month — TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE — Wall Street Journal's secret project will launch in six weeks, with a formal announcement of its launch detailing what it will be expected early next year, sources within Dow Jones & Co. said Tuesday.

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

AP staffers hold ‘byline boycott’ to protest proposed cuts — Romenesko Misc. — The AP union says members are also demonstrating unity by wearing red shirts and signing a petition asking management to reconsider a pension plan freeze and increases in medical payments by more than 40 percent.

Discussion: New York Observer

Brian Sheehan / AdAge:

Why Big Brands Are Dominating Social Media — In Social Media, Small Brands need to Think Smaller: Big Brands Already Are — In the pre-web days, unless you had a budget big enough for expensive mainstream ad vehicles, like TV, print or radio, it was hard to reach a significant audience with your message.

Discussion: Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

ColumbiaJournalism:

Nicholas Lemann on Why J-school Still Matters — Columbia Journalism School presents: “Why Journalism School Still Matters: A conversation with Dean Nick Lemann.” Join the dean (and New Yorker writer) as he discusses the journalism landscape and all the changes and activities at the J-school.

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Givhan, Gopnik leaving the Washington Post — There's big news out of the Washington Post's Style section Tuesday! Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion writer Robin Givhan and art critic are Blake Gopnik are both leaving the paper. — Gopnik, according to a staff memo, will be embarking on a …

Discussion: Media Decoder, New York Magazine and Poynter

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Better curation on Twitter, pushback against anonymity, and more new startups: Predictions for 2011 — Editor's Note: We're wrapping up 2010 by asking some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year will bring. — Below are predictions from Bob Giles, Alan Murray, David Beard …

Jeff Israely / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Speeding up a startup, but slowing down at the same time — Editor's Note: Jeff Israely, a Time magazine foreign correspondent in Europe, is in the early stages of a news startup called Worldcrunch. He occasionally describes the startup process here at the Lab. Read his past installments here.

Nieman Reports:

Community Host: An Emerging Newsroom ‘Beat’ Without a Guide — TBD's community engagement team listens—and responds—in a city where everyone is talking: Washington, D.C. — By TBD's Community Engagement Team — The job of engaging with those formerly known as “the audience” …

Discussion: Poynter and Nieman Journalism Lab