Mediagazer: Data journalism central (Deborah Potter/NewsLab)

3:10 PM ET, December 18, 2010

Top News:

Jim Romenesko / Poynter Online:

Memo: 'Gawker tech team didn't adequately secure our platform' — “On several fronts — technically, as well as customer support and communication — we found ourselves unprepared to handle this eventuality,” says Gawker chief technology officer Thomas Plunkett's memo to staff.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Google To Expand And Market Movie Streaming Service In 2011 — Google is expanding its feature film streaming service, says a source who's been briefed on the product. The service will likely be an expansion of the current movie rental/streaming test launched by Google earlier this year.

Discussion: Electronista, SAI and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Deborah Potter / NewsLab:

Data journalism central — The folks at the Guardian have been doing inspired work with data for several years. Now, they've added a new data store-one stop shopping for anyone interested in making data more meaningful. In addition to the data blog that highlights the British newspaper's own analysis …

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Exclusive: Another Executive Exits Disney Digital: Paul Yanover — It's over for Paul Yanover at Disney (NYSE: DIS) Online. The chief architect behind the rebuilding of Disney.com is leaving to “pursue new opportunities outside the company,” as he told staffers Friday morning in an internal e-mail (full memo below).

Discussion: MediaPost, Company Town and The Wrap

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Mike Bloomberg's New Megaphone — The New York City mayor is going into the op-ed business. Howard Kurtz on what Bloomberg wants—and how his new venture will keep hope alive for fans who want to see him in the White House. — Michael Bloomberg is already fabulously wealthy …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Jason Fry / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A blow to content farms, Facebook's continued growth, and the continued pull of the open web — Editor's Note: We're wrapping up 2010 by asking some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year will bring. Today, our predictor is Jason Fry, a familiar byline at the Lab.

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Study: Some Viewers Were Misinformed by TV News — News organizations can educate voters about public policy and economic conditions, but they can also misinform voters. As if to prove the point, a study released Friday found that “substantial levels of misinformation” …

Discussion: TPM LiveWire, Mediaite, Gawker, ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, The Informer, TVWeek.com and Inside Cable News

Michael Miner / Chicago Reader:

$180 Million Is Not Chump Change If You've Got to Give It Back — In the past few days I've twice been forwarded a document that my Tribune sources find pretty astonishing. It's a list of 209 Tribune Company managers and former managers who came into quite a bit of money when Sam Zell took …

Discussion: Poynter and The Wrap

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Who really owns the M&A beat? — As a followup to Nick Summers' recent New York Observer piece about the New York Times' DealBook franchise and the extent to which it has closed in on the Wall Street Journal's traditionally dominant mergers-and-acquisitions coverage, an anonymous Journal staffer took …

Discussion: Talking Biz News and Poynter

Frederik Joelving / Reuters:

When the news breaks the journalist: PTSD — (Reuters Health) - Chris Cramer, 62, was a fledgling war correspondent when one spring day 30 years ago he got much closer to the battle than he'd ever intended. — Just back from Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, his boss at the BBC had asked him to fly to Tehran …

Damian Kulash Jr / Wall Street Journal:

The New Rock-Star Paradigm — Succeeding in the music business isn't just about selling albums anymore. The lead singer of OK Go on how to make it without a record label (treadmill videos help) — OK Go performs at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, above.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Research firm offers cash for journalists' opinions — News reporters are supposed to keep their opinions out of their copy. They certainly aren't supposed to sell them back to the people they cover. — Yet now there's a hush-hush way for journalists to turn their innermost thoughts into cold hard cash.

Discussion: Gawker, New York Observer, mediabistro.com, Digital Ingest and Talking Biz News

American Journalism Review:

Undocumented or Illegal? — A campaign to change the way some immigrants are described in news stories faces an uphill battle. Posted: Fri, Dec. 17 2010 — Karen Carmichael, a former AJR editorial assistant, and Rabiah Alicia Burks are graduate students at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.