Journalists are expanding their boundaries and changing with the times. A new digital world means that they have to not only research and write their story, but also provide pictures and videos. To help them to this end, BBC is giving its reporters smartphones, reported Press Gazette.

After taking a social media course, journalist Chrissy Sturt wrote a letter asking why the BBC didn't supply its journalists with iPhones. "The iPhone is one of the best ways to keep across social media, and when you're out on a fast-moving story they are invaluable," she wrote.

Sturt felt that she and her fellow journalists were being held back by not being supplied with smartphones. "We need these phones, and it's not fair that some people are using their own iPhones to do the BBC's newsgathering."

BBC's head of newsgathering Fran Unsworth took the message to heart. She responded, "We recognise that it is essential for journalists in the field to be connected to the flow of information about the story they are covering. Smartphones, including iPhones, are being rolled out to enable staff to send live and recorded audio, video and stills. A range of models is being used and equipment is being issued as older items come up for replacement."

What if you invented a newspaper today without the legacy of 400 years of newspapers? That was the challenge of News+, a Bonnier iPad publication that bills itself as "beginning where newspapers leave off."

In May 2010, Bonnier gave iPads to its existing Dagens Nyheter subscribers and asked them what the company should do with the new device.

Here is how Pontus Schultz, Head of Business Development for Bonnier R&D, described what happened:

"They started to tell us about the downside of tablets. How will we share different sections around the table? It's so heavy, how can I read it in bed? Then they started talking about the digital advantages - beautiful pictures, video and the ability to do updates.

"We realized that the subscribers we had still quite liked their newspaper - they're not out there looking for a new solution. So it probably wasn't going to be a replacement product."

The company then determined what people were willing to pay for. "If you ask the newsroom, they'll say news," says Mr Schultz. "We talked to 300 subscribers, and I'm prepared to say that news is in 4th place, and is moving lower and lower. It's actually behind advertising as a reason to buy a newspaper. That's not so surprising - news is a commodity, you can get it everywhere.

Reflecting the fact that Facebook is becoming an increasingly essential tool for news organisations, Facebook has launched a new page specifically for journalist: Journalists on Facebook.

The aim of the page - announced a note - is to serve as an ongoing resource for the growing number of reporters using Facebook to find sources, interact with readers, and advance stories. "Since we first launched these initiatives at the beginning of 2010," it claimed, "the average media organization has seen a greater than 300% increase in referral traffic from Facebook."

"The Page will provide journalists with best practices for integrating the latest Facebook products with their work and connecting with the Facebook audience of more than 500 million people", it announced.

The page has, at the time of writing, 18,178 people liking it (and it was launched just two days ago, Tuesday April 5).

This is not the first initiative Facebook has carried out especially for media people: last fall it launched Facebook for Media, but that page is more geared towards the organization while this new page is all about the individual, Journalistics reported.

It seems "paywall" will be the word of 2011.

After the long-awaited and extensively-covered New York Times' metered paywall, two more newspapers announced their plans to introduce digital subscriptions.

The Hearst Corporation is considering a paywall for sfgate.com, the online portal of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Citizen reported, citing Chronicle staffers who have been briefed on the company's plans.

No details are available about when the digital subscription will be introduced (possibly at the end of the month) neither about what will be the monthly subscription fee. However "newsroom employees said the paper would likely establish a "hard" paywall, rather than a metered plan that lets readers click on a certain number of articles before cutting off access", the article said.

The article also reported one staffer said that over half of the stories now available for free on sfgate.com could be cordoned off by the new paywall, especially longer, investigative stories that appear on Sundays and many of the paper's popular columns. The paper currently embargoes such stories, printing them in the newspaper before publishing them on the site two days later. Shorts, daily news and breaking stories instead, would likely remain free of charge.