The Guardian has launched a new iPhone app, this time using a subscription model rather than a one-off download fee. The new app is available for £2.99 for 6 months and £3.99 for 12 (except in the US where it will remain free and ad-supported) and the paper says it will be "launching more frequent updates, offering a broader range of content and bringing you a better experience." The old app, which will remain live for 6 months, launched in December 2009 and has been downloaded more than 200,000 times. 25% of users accessed it every single day in December 2010, the Guardian said.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum have written to Rwandan President Paul Kagame to express serious concern over the lengthy prison sentences requested by state prosecutors in a High Court hearing against two journalists.
For the full text of the letter please see here.

World Press Photo has announced its first contest for multimedia productions in visual journalism. Explaining its decision to launch a new contest (in addition to its photography contest which has been running since 1955), a release said that "While photography continues to play a significant role in global media, the organization recognizes the increasing importance of photography products in the market, and is aware of a broadening in demand beyond the still image in printed media." The winners will be announced at the beginning of May.

The Guardian reported on Apple's announcement of record revenues, with profits of $6bn and revenues of $26.74bn - up 77.5% and 70.5% respectively. Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has announced that he is taking his third open-ended period of medical leave but he will continue as chief executive and be involved in major strategic decisions. Shares had fallen at the start of Tuesday during early trading in New York, when the stock markets reopened following Monday's holiday, when Jobs made the announcement. However, shares increased by 4% in after-hours trading, as the company announced that during the Christmas quarter it sold 7.3m iPads, taking the total sold to 14.5m devices since its introduction in April, the article said.

Also in the The Guardian, senior state department officials have concluded that the damage caused by the Wikileaks controversy has caused little real and lasting damage to American diplomacy. "It emerged in private briefings to Congress by top diplomats that the fallout from the release of thousands of private diplomatic cables from all over the globe has not been especially bad", the paper said. It appears - the paper revealed - that damage was localised in terms of a few specific cables, for example about Yemen, and thus expected to be containable in the long-run. The Guardian pointed out that this is in direct opposition to the official stance of the White House and the US government which has been vocal in condemning the whistleblowing organisation and seeking to brings its founder, Julian Assange, to trial in the US. A congressional official briefed on the reviews told Reuters that the administration felt compelled to say publicly that the revelations had seriously damaged American interests in order to bolster legal efforts to shut down the Wikileaks website and bring charges against the leakers.

For more industry news please see WAN-IFRA's Executive News Service