Mediagazer: Why Big Brands Are Dominating Social Media (Brian Sheehan/AdAge)

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, Daily Kos, CJR, New York Observer, Yahoo! News and American Journalism Review, more at Techmeme »

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, Guardian, Danger Room, TPMMuckraker, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Gawker, VentureBeat, New York Magazine, 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, The Next Web, MediaPost, MediaMemo, TechCrunch, paidContent, TUAW, MacRumors, eMedia Vitals, Digital Media Wire and Geekosystem, 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.

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.

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: The Awl, Poynter, New York Observer, eMedia Vitals and WebNewser

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.

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

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.

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 …

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.

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Smartphone growth, Murdoch's Daily, and journalism for the poor: Predictions for mobile news in 2011 — Editor's Note: We're wrapping up 2010 by asking some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year will bring. — One of the common threads through many of their predictions was mobile …

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.

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Exclusive: Ex-NBC Chief Resurfaces With Digital Venture — Fred Silverman, who ran each of the three broadcast networks over the course of the 1970s, is trying his hand at programming on the internet. His production company will launch Blip City, which is billed as “the world's biggest live-video get together,” next month.

Discussion: VentureBeat

Eriq Gardner / Reuters:

Online vendor of 25-cent Beatles songs loses case — NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A federal judge has ruled on summary judgment that BlueBeat.com is liable for violating copyrights in thousands of songs. In making the decision, the judge had swatted away one of the stranger defenses to infringement of sound recordings.

Discussion: Techdirt and paidContent

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

Cohen Upped To EVP At Bravo — Exec will continue to host ‘WWHL’ in elevated role — Andy Cohen has been promoted to executive vice president, original programming and development at Bravo, the network announced Tuesday. He will continue to be based in New York, reporting to Frances Berwick, president of Bravo Media.

Discussion: MediaPost

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

France Says Google Is Main Cause Of News Publishers' Woes — French authorities have finally got some kind of ruling against Google (NSDQ: GOOG) - but it turns out to be rather toothless. — The competition watchdog, L'Autorité de la Concurrence, in an opinion expressed to the finance minister …

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

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 and Poynter

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

More Signs Pointing Towards Hearst Buying Hachette — Sources say Hearst and Hachette execs are scheduled to meet in coming weeks — More signs are pointing to a possible sale of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., publisher of Elle and Woman's Day, to Hearst Corp.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and FishbowlNY

Ari Samsky / splicetoday.com:

A Subject of Astonishingly Small Importance — The New York Times, out of touch and incoherent. — ReservasdeCoches.com — I always enjoy reading Arthur Brisbane, the recently appointed public editor of The New York Times. Brisbane supposedly acts as a representative of the Times' readership …