Recently by Alisa Zykova

UK-based Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) expressed its concern over the BBC's upcoming mobile ventures, reported The Independent on Friday. According to the Press Gazette, the BBC will be launching an iPhone application in April and applications for BBC Sport and its iPlayer afterwards.

Search engine corporation Google has donated over US$ 2 million to the Wikimedia Foundation, a move that may reinforce the "symbiotic relationship" between Google and Wikipedia, according to Business Week. The total donations the free online encyclopaedia raised added up to US$10.6 million for its fiscal year ending in June, a 20 percent spike since the same time the previous year, wrote the Inquirer on Thursday. 

Newspaper and magazine publishers may be reluctant to jump on the iPad bandwagon, suggests ArsTechnica. Possible reasons include the 30 percent commission that Apple takes as well as the firm's policy of not sharing customer data. 

Facebook will launch Zero, its text-only version that may be offered by mobile phone carriers for free, according to TechCrunch. The low-bandwidth service that doesn't offer access to photos will be launched "in the coming weeks", Hexus today reported.

Morris Publishing Group announced today its "pre-packaged" reorganisation plan has been confirmed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, based in Atlanta, Georgia, Editor & Publisher reported today. After its disclosure statement was approved, the U.S. publisher was predicted to begin debt recovery as early as March 1, according to PR Newswire.

Metro International, the largest free newspaper group in the world, reported a profit in the fourth quarter of last year following minimised operations and a growing share in "most of its markets," said Reuters today. 

Free Russian-language newspapers Moi Rayion, distributed in Moscow and St. Petersburg on weekends, as well as Moscow's daily Metro, announced a joint advertising venture titled "Seven Days a Week," Slon.ru reported today. The publications claim that fusing two separate distribution systems (the subway for Metro and large supermarket chains for Moi Rayion) would provide advertisers with maximum access to a desired audience on any day of the week.

InformationWeek divulged Thursday that Amazon may have acquired Touchco, a touchscreen technology manufacturer. According to a New York Times (NYT) article from Wednesday "a person briefed on the deal" revealed that Amazon would be combining the manufacturer's technology and staff members into its California-based hardware division Lab126.

The Republic of Belarus would have tighter rules regarding the distribution of foreign publications, Ejednevnik reported Monday. Officials met to bring about alterations in the decree governing the availability of foreign media.

Modifications were made to the types of "foreign sources of mass information" that were to be imported. Banned will be content that may harm national safety with war propaganda as well as mention of rape, cruelty, extremism, and drug use. In addition, material that isn't available in Belarus or that doesn't correspond to the state's laws is to be prohibited.

Russian publishing house Kommersant has announced the launch of a blog section, Lenta.ru reported today. The blog is still working in trial mode, but already has three full-time bloggers: Oleg Kashin, Andrei Kolesnikov and Olga Allenova. 

Newspaper Web sites in the United States received an average monthly unique audience of 72 million visitors during the fourth quarter of last year, which represents 37 percent of all Internet users, reported WebProNews today. The data was obtained through Nielsen Online research that the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) published.







Newspaper Web sites stopped attracting new users, according to Editor & Publisher. According to the Nielsen figures, the number of unique users dropped from 73.2 million to 72.3 between November and October 2009, and plunged to 70.3 million in December.

The French Publishers Association (SNE, Syndicat National de l'Edition) is going forth with its battle against search engine giant Google, which has been publishing numerous books online in violation of copyright laws, Le Figaro reported Wednesday.

Last month, the SNE and publishing group La Martinière celebrated a "big victory against the American giant" when a judge ruled in their favour on December 18, said SNE President Serge Eyrolles. The case will be transferred to American Judge Denny Chin before January 28.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs suggested that he may be able to restructure industries such as textbooks, newspapers and television, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "People familiar with the talks" said Apple has been discussing possible ventures with book, magazine and newspaper publishers such as the New York Times Co., Condé Nast Publications Inc. and HarperCollins Publishers, as well as its owner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

According to a survey by market research company Retrevo, 70 percent of respondents will not spend more than US$700 on Apple's upcoming tablet device, accoding to Computer World today. Seventy-five percent said they wouldn't acquire the tablet unless it had a battery life of more than six hours, reported ZDNet.

Following in the footsteps of The New York Times, French news sites like L'Express and Le Figaro will be providing paid-for online content, Le Monde reported today. News magazine L'Express intends to propose a paywall in 2010, sometime in the second trimester. Online Director Corinne Denis said the publication is continuing to work on the project. However, their "model is not yet finalised" and is not profitable since its costs are higher than what subscriptions could bring.