Now in their third year, the awards include seven new categories to recognise journalism in various sectors as well as individuals. New categories added include; best app for smart phone or tablet, best freelance writer, best photographer, best lifestyle / leisure news site, best business / finance news site, best health / education news site and outstanding digital team of the year, in association with the British Journalism Review.

According to a new report by the European Commission Joint research centre, online music piracy does not significantly affect legal music sales. The study examined the online practices of 16,000 European people to find a connection between music piracy and visits to legal digital music stores. However, the international music industry body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry criticised the report by calling it "flawed and misleading."

A larger picture is emerging about an online advertising scam that is reportedly soaking major brands like McDonald's and Disney for $6 million a month. The scam, which has rattled publishers and the ad industry, came to light on Tuesday after a London analytics firm revealed that a network of zombie computers tricked the brands into paying to show their ads to robots.

BBC Weather's Twitter feed has been hacked by a group claiming to be the "Syrian Electronic Army". Several tweets from the official BBC Weather account, run by presenters and producers, referenced other Middle Eastern countries. One antisemitic post urged residents of Haifa to "return to Poland" while another forecast the weather for Tel Aviv this Saturday to be "5000 degrees Kelvin with northern fog and eastern high pressure front".

Campaigners fear that authoritarian regimes will use the British model as a precedent to clamp down on their own media. Phenyo Butale, of the South African Freedom of Expression Institute, claimed: "African governments have shown they are uncomfortable with free press acting as a watchdog, holding them to account. A move to statutory regulation in the UK would really be a gift for them."

New figures have been released by the National Readership survey showing combined print and online readership for UK national titles. The figures are for average UK print readership (using a survey rather than actual sales) for the whole year of 2012, and for online readership in November 2012 (quoting comScore data). According to NRS The Sun is the most read newspaper/website in the UK with a combined readership of 7,385,000.

The move would instantly make Yahoo a bigger player in Web video outside the U.S. Yahoo is reportedly in talks to acquire a controlling stake in Dailymotion, which could be company's largest deal since its new CEO Marissa Mayer took charge in July 2012. As part of the deal, Yahoo would acquire about 75% of online video website, which is owned by French telecommunications company France Telecom-Orange.

Welcome yet again to the collision between the virtual and real worlds. Amazon has been slapped down by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a listing on Amazon.co.uk for a rude Christmas card. Although Amazon tried to claim that listings aren't ads and shouldn't be covered by the regulator, the regulator disagreed. Nonetheless, the ASA said it qualified as an ad and therefore fell under its remit.

It was a year ago this week when ITV News made a significant mark in the world of live digital news with the launch of its new website, which set out to offer its audience "something different". This includes content driven by a 'stream' of time-stamped news updates, delivered to the audience in a range of formats from video and full articles to more snippet-style content such as key quotes and social media content.

Spotify has revealed it has removed the five play-per-song cap it imposed upon its free users in April 2011. Speaking via its online blog, Spotify said it had some "mighty fine news for all Spotify Free users". Adding that the five play-per-song limit had been removed meaning "You can listen to your favourite songs as many times as you like."