Daily Telegraph takes prizes and Boris pleads for politicians

In fact, there were a few gasps when the Telegraph's Robert Winnett, who collected the political reporter award, narrowly missed out on the more prestigious reporter of the year.

Telegraph editor-in-chief Will Lewis won journalist of the year. He said: "If ever there was a story that proves news still sells newspapers, I suspect this was it."

Freedom of Information campaigner Heather Brooke also won a special award for her role exposing MPs' expenses.

Boris's job swaps

Guest speaker Boris Johnson made a jolly speech about coming to the Press Awards "to sue for peace" on behalf of all politicians after "you have bugged our phones, abolished our second-home allowances".

The Mayor suggested journalists and politicians should swap jobs: "I encourage all of you to put all your expenses online. Broken, broke, Brokeback Britain can wait no longer for the political probity that you will bring."

Confusion at Carolyn's Guardian

Guardian chief Carolyn McCall's decision to leave the paper in the lurch by quitting to run easyJet was the talk of the Press Awards. Will Lewis joked: "If anyone from The Guardian, or Carolyn, is here: Doors to manual.'"

The mood on The Guardian tables was not lifted by compere John Humphrys who made a sombre speech about the financial state of journalism and singled out The Guardian because of its refusal to make readers pay for content online while still charging £1 a day in print. "I don't understand," said the Radio 4 newsman firmly.

All is shining for Elisabeth Murdoch

Elisabeth Murdoch is celebrating after her Shine TV production company, with global turnover of £265 million, was crowned the biggest UK indie in Broadcast's annual survey.

But All3Media, previously ranked number one, might not be thrilled as its international revenues apparently weren't included. On a global basis, All3Media easily topped a similar survey by Televisual last autumn with £400 million turnover...

Time to pay up online

No wonder The Times and Sunday Times are keen to launch an internet pay wall. New accounts show the two papers recorded a pre-tax loss of £88 million in the year to June 2009 while The Sun and News of the World were £40 million in the black.

The rival Daily Mirror — which, at 45p, costs more than twice the discounted Sun — doesn't disclose profits but a source says it made "at the top end of £45 million-£55 million" last year.

Can news websites be Robin Hoods?

"The economics of free are killing serious journalism" is the motion at tonight's Intelligence Squared debate in Westminster where speakers include ex-Five boss David Elstein, Spectator chief Andrew Neil and columnist AA Gill.

Elstein, who opposes the motion, advocates "freemium" — a hybrid of free and pay — after his experience backing website openDemocracy, which covers global news: "If just 10% of openDemocracy's two million unique users every year contributed £1 each, that would cover the entire year's running costs. The question is: how to secure such input simply and cheaply, while not shutting out 90% of our readership?"

Elstein has an intriguing idea — make the site free for those in the poorest countries, charge in more prosperous ones.

Countdown from Five

Could RTL chief executive Gerhard Zeiler be ready to sell Channel Five soon? Announcing annual results two weeks ago, Zeiler ruled out a sale despite his UK broadcaster losing £37 million last year but he does expect "consolidation" across the sector. So it's intriguing fresh rumours are doing the rounds this week that Five is suddenly very keen to schmooze the new leadership at Channel 4...