For those launching metered digital subscriptions models, the word paywall is one they often try to distance themselves from. Most tend to prefer a clear distinction to be made between a 'hard' wall, such as was implemented by the Times, and as of next month the Sun, in the UK, and metered models, as put in place by the New York Times in 2011. Press+, which enables publishers to set up a metered model, is equally clear about the difference between the two. In fact, the word 'paywall' is banned in their offices.

Mike Darcey, the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's UK publishing operation, believes free websites may get more readers than those behind a digital paywall, but they "don't generate meaningful revenue"- and that focusing on building a mountain of users is "only good for the ego". The head of News UK, the freshly rebranded name for News International, said that giving content away free digitally undermines a print business which is still by far and away the engine room of revenues and profits.

"The priorities for this year are to really firm up the ground that we started covering last year which is looking at standards," social media and user-generated content editor for international Fergus Bell told Journalism.co.uk. In terms of the treatment of citizen journalists this covers safety and "ethical considerations for working with people who are in dangerous situations", he said.

It's been six months since politics blogger Andrew Sullivan decided to take his popular blog, The Dish, independent, and this week he posted a half-year status update: The blog now has 27,349 paid subscribers who have contributed $715,000 in revenue. That takes The Dish 80 percent of the way to its goal of $900,000 in revenue for the first year.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the move is being piloted as a means to increase revenue from the site, particularly through its fashion and celebrity coverage. The scheme will link from stories to retailers selling clothes or other fashion items featured in the stories. Last month, a story about Kate Middleton was accompanied by several links, allowing readers to buy the dress she was wearing. The dress sold out within an hour, said the FT.

News Corporation, the newly devolved publishing division in Rupert Murdoch's global empire starts, launches on the New York and Sydney stock exchanges on Monday with the aim of dominating the smartphone market for news, entertainment and information. Robert Thomson, the chief executive of new News Corp, told investors in Sydney the company would retain "Murdochian magic" and would have "a permanent startup sensibility" with globalisation and digitisation its biggest opportunities for growth.

Catch-up TV on demand platforms such as BBC iPlayer and ITV Player now accounts for a fifth of the UK's television viewing, according to research released by YouView. The study conducted by YouView, was carried out by YouGov and involved 2,000 people in the UK who were asked about their use of on demand TV. This found that catch-up, on demand viewing made up to six hours of the average household's TV viewing each week, watching 10 programmes a week.

BBC Three has launched eight comedy pilots exclusively on BBC iPlayer as part of a year-long trial. The broadcaster, which revealed its plans to commission shows exclusively on its TV catch-up player ahead of their potential TV transmission in February, has released another wave of comedy pilots following the success of its initial trial which began last year.

The UK Government has revealed plans to establish a new dedicated police division aimed at targeting online piracy and other intellectual property crimes including counterfeit goods. The UK Intellectual Property Office will offer GBP2.5 million in funding over two years to the City of London Police to setup and operate the new division.

The Observer has stuck by claims published over the weekend that the US secret service had struck secret espionage deals with European countries, despite the story being pulled late on Saturday night. The splash by reporter Jamie Doward originally ran on the Guardian website on Saturday night and was on the front page of first editions of The Observer. But it was taken down from the site around midnight and the front page was changed for later print editions.