Online coupon giant WhaleShark Media, which operates the RetailMeNot coupon site in the United States and several European sites, has acquired French online coupon publisher Miwim for an undisclosed sum. The company, founded in 2009 by Cotter Cunningham, will now operate Miwim's leading online coupon site, Bons-de-Reduction, and the cash-back website, Poulpeo. Olivier David and Francois Larvor, who cofounded Miwim in 2007, will continue to serve as its co-general managers as part of the agreement, which adds nearly 20 additional employees to WhaleShark Media's overall headcount, including a product and development team that will continue to serve the engineering needs …

Record labels' new-found enthusiasm for ending their iTunes dependence has created an opportunity for new digital music services. Like a game of Risk, every week, the likes of Spotify, Rdio and Deezer are racing in to new countries with a new model - unlimited subscription access to millions of songs. But, as the services embark on this VC-funded globalisation, which are the world's most competitive, most lucrative and most digital music markets? Check out the interactive map!

Northcliffe titles, which include the This Is series and the LocalPeople.co.uk hyperlocal sites, will be able source videos for use on its websites from the Newsflare community of citizen video journalists. The publisher can use video that has been uploaded or can request footage from the Newsflare community, setting the amount it is willing to pay for an assignment. Northcliffe Digital sites already rely on user-generated content, with thepublisher saying it receives more than 100,000 contributions each month from users, including comments and photos.

A study by technology company Basekit, reveals that Facebook is now the number one source for small businesses to create new customers. Facebook has proven to be a more popular source than local business directories as well as print and online advertising. The research reveals that 36% of small businesses in Britain used the social networking site for marketing purposes. Twitter is also a popular source for small businesses to create new customers with 17% using the micro blogging site.

The Japanese mobile carrier has issued a tender offer to acquire the mobile content company based in Italy. Docomo notes in a statement that the acquisition would be made by its Germany-based subsidiary, Docomo Deutschland, and that Maruo del Rio, Buongiorno's majority shareholder and chairman with 20 percent of Buongiorno's stock, has already agreed to sell his stake to the carrier. The deal would see Buongiorno become a subsidiary of NTT Docomo.

Media website The Wall reports that the newspaper says it was moving its plans forward for the paywall in response "to an unpredictable advertising market", which that has seen both print and digital sales drop this spring at publishers in both North America and Europe. It has not yet announced how much it will charge or how many free articles it will give readers. Like the New York Times, The Globe and Mail will remain open to social media allowing its articles to be widely shared.

The system, which is currently being trialled in New Zealand, offers users the chance to 'highlight an important post' for a mere $2 (GBP1.25) and offers PayPal or a credit card as a payment option. However, Facebook users across the region have seen the feature at a range of different price points, including offering the service for free. By choosing to highlight a post, the post in question is given a yellow background. This also applies to status updates and picture posts.

The popular US-based campaign site Change.org is opening a UK branch as part of a global roll-out. The company offers individuals and organisations the chance to publicise petitions and sign up more supporters. It says it already has 14 million users, 500,000 of them in the UK. It says the move will allow it to offer a localised home page and employ a four-person London-based team, headed by a former Oxfam employee, to flag up "hot campaigns" to the media.

Johnston Press desperately needed to be dragged into the 21st Century when Ashley Highfield took the helm. The second largest publisher of newspapers in the UK, its business was built along traditional publishing lines, highly dependent on local classified, recruitment and cover price sales to service its massive debt. Highfield's first six month have been something of a baptism of fire.

The sports network currently holds the broadcast rights to show live matches from the Premier League and FA Cup in the UK. ESPN is committed to broadcasting the FA Cup and Premier League until the end of the 2013-2014 season in the UK. When the broadcast rights are up for auction again, the network expects strong competition from BSkyB and Al Jazeera, which has been making moves to boost its sports coverage.