diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.17.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.17.0.txt
index 5df49b1457a7e..d1f3dd48ef36f 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.17.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.17.0.txt
@@ -11,6 +11,21 @@ users upgrade to this version.
 
    pandas >= 0.17.0 will no longer support compatibility with Python version 3.2 (:issue:`9118`)
 
+.. warning::
+
+   The ``pandas.io.data`` package is deprecated and will be replaced by the
+   `pandas-datareader package <https://github.com/pydata/pandas-datareader>`_.
+   This will allow the data modules to be independently updated to your pandas
+   installation. The API for ``pandas-datareader v0.1.1`` is exactly the same
+   as in ``pandas v0.17.0`` (:issue:`8961`, :issue:`10861`).
+
+   After installing pandas-datareader, you can easily change your imports:
+
+   .. code-block:: Python
+
+     from pandas.io import data, wb # becomes
+     from pandas_datareader import data, wb
+
 Highlights include:
 
 - Release the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) on some cython operations, see :ref:`here <whatsnew_0170.gil>`
diff --git a/pandas/io/data.py b/pandas/io/data.py
index 1556f6b00e981..829ff4f28ca1b 100644
--- a/pandas/io/data.py
+++ b/pandas/io/data.py
@@ -23,6 +23,15 @@
 from pandas.util.testing import _network_error_classes
 from pandas.io.html import read_html
 
+warnings.warn("\n"
+              "The pandas.io.data module is moved to a separate package "
+              "(pandas-datareader) and will be removed from pandas in a "
+              "future version.\nAfter installing the pandas-datareader package "
+              "(https://github.com/pydata/pandas-datareader), you can change "
+              "the import ``from pandas.io import data, wb`` to "
+              "``from pandas_datareader import data, wb``.",
+              FutureWarning)
+
 class SymbolWarning(UserWarning):
     pass