Mediagazer: Bloom.fm assets to be sold off after streaming startup couldn't find a buyer (Stuart Dredge/Music Ally)

8:45 AM ET, May 21, 2014

Top News:

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

Netflix launching in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg this year — Netflix to launch in six European countries this year — (Reuters) - Netflix Inc will launch its online movie and TV subscription service later this year in France, Germany and four other European countries …

Discussion: Netflix, Engadget, Gigaom, CNET, The Next Web and The Verge

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Netflix's Neil Hunt Says Personalized Recommendations Will Replace The Navigation Grid

Discussion: Fast Company and BGR

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

Bloom.fm assets to be sold off after streaming startup couldn't find a buyer — UK-based streaming music startup Bloom.fm has spent the last three weeks trying to find a buyer, after announcing in late April that it was shutting down due to its main investor pulling out.

Discussion: Complete Music Update, hypebot, The Next Web and Music Week

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Simon & Schuster becomes second publisher to join ebooks subscription sites Scribd and Oyster — Simon & Schuster, E-Book Services Strike Deal — Publisher Agrees to Make Older Books Available to Oyster and Scribd — Simon & Schuster has agreed to make available more than 10,000 older titles …

Discussion: Gigaom, Mashable and The Next Web

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

UBC merges with 7digital to create £30m multimedia group — Digital music service bought in reverse takeover as multimedia company looks to create global music and radio business — UBC Media chief executive Simon Cole says the merger with 7digital will help the company exploit …

Discussion: Financial Times, RTTNews, Business news and Ifa Magazine

Abigail Edge / Journalism.co.uk:

First Look Media to launch site investigating corruption — Speaking at the London Social Media Summit, Andy Carvin of First Look Media announced the outlet's plans to launch a new investigative site led by former Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi. First Look Media is to launch …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

As The Public Markets Beckon, Streaming Startup Spotify Reveals 40M Users, 10M Paid Users — As the music streaming market continues to heat up, Spotify has released new user numbers today that solidify its position at the front of the pack: it has now passed 40 million active users …

Discussion: Forbes, Telegraph, Reuters, USA Today, ABC News, Guardian, Billboard, Financial Times, Music Week, The Next Web, Re/code and BGR

Jake Mitchell / Sydney Morning Herald:

Network Ten, one of the 5 national free-to-air networks in Australia, halves news operation, cuts 150 jobs — Ten revenue ‘down the toilet’ says news chief Peter Meakin — Major cuts have been made to Network Ten's news department following the axing of breakfast show Wake Up, their morning bulletin and late news editions.

Discussion: The Age, NEWS.com.au, The Age, ninemsn, Associated Press, ABC, @juanita_phillip, @attardmon, mUmBRELLA, Sky News and Guardian

Wall Street Journal:

Twitter backed out of talks to buy SoundCloud because “the numbers didn't add up” — Twitter Considered Buying German Music-Streaming Service — Twitter Inc. considered buying German music-streaming service SoundCloud, but it has backed out of the talks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Business Insider, @hamishmckenzie, @caseynewton, @briansolis, VentureBeat, Re/code, Electronista, Gigaom, The Verge, Mashable, SocialTimes, Fortune and Gigaom

Steve Gutterman / Reuters:

Five convicted of killing Russian journalist Politkovskaya — (Reuters) - Five men were convicted on Tuesday of murdering 2006 of investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, including three defendants who had been acquitted in a previous trial.

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, Slate, BBC, Sky News, TIME, DW.DE, France 24, GlobalPost, Associated Press and NBC News

Sam Roberts / New York Times:

Arthur Gelb, Critic and Editor Who Shaped the Times, Dies at 90 — Arthur Gelb, who by sheer force of personality dominated the newsroom at The New York Times for decades, lifting its metropolitan and arts coverage to new heights and helping to shape the paper in its modern era, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan.

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:

PolicyMic names Bryan Graham editor of new sports vertical — PolicyMic is rolling out a new vertical tomorrow covering sports, according to a staff memo co-founder and editor in chief Jake Horowitz sent out on Monday night. — Leading new vertical will be Bryan Graham …

Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:

Nielsen fleshes out Twitter TV ratings with demographic data — Nielsen launched its Twitter TV Ratings last year to show how many people talk about particular shows on social media and, more important, how many people actually see those tweets about “Catfish: The TV Show” and WWE pro wrestling.

Discussion: @nielsensocial, MediaPost, Nielsen, Deadline.com, BroadwayWorld.com and TechCrunch

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Samsung launches new video service... in Asia — Samsung announced a new video service on Tuesday, tentatively called Project Glue, that aims to bring U.S. TV shows to audiences in Asia. Project Glue will give users access to an entire season of a TV show for 30 days for as little as $6.50.

Discussion: The Straits Times, CNET and The Next Web