The Oriella Digital Journalism Study asked 553 journalists in 15 countries about their outlook and their publications, and reflects some interesting geographic differences. Here are some highlights: 59% of journalists are tweeting in 2013, versus 47% in 2012. Twitter use is highest in English-speaking countries, while barely a third of German journalists have a Twitter account.

A global survey of journalists has underlined the growth of online journalism, with 30 per cent of media desribing their offering as 'digital first' and more than half of journalists admitting they source stories from services like Twitter. The sixth Orialla Digital Journalism Study sampled the views of 550 journalists from 15 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

The newspaper and publishing assets of News Corp must get by without the help of well-heeled entertainment and cable assets, following a Tuesday vote by investors. The vote gave formal approval to a long awaited plan to split News Corp into two companies on June 28th: an entertainment concern called 21st Century Fox and a new News Corp that will house the book publisher Harper Collins, Dow Jones and Australian newspaper and TV assets.

Up to 40 editorial roles are to be created at the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday websites as the newspaper group makes a shift toward digital. It's understood most of the roles will be filled by moving existing print staff but may result in some new hirings.

The Independent is to partner with Microsoft's Bing to bring the paper's latest news to the UK Bing News app for Windows 8. The Independent joins six other UK publishers on the app including the likes of the Guardian, The Times and Sky News. The deal sees all original content from The Independent's team of journalists accessible to Windows 8 users with just one tap of the Start screen.

The UK intelligence agencies have made 1,268 requests seeking information on private communications via Microsoft products including Skype in 2012, accounting for a quarter of all requests received by the internet calling service from global governments. During the period, the requests from agencies including British police and intelligence agencies, such as GCHQ, have surpassed requests made by those US agencies, according to Guardian.

Underground music magazine The Wire has made its entire back catalogue available online for the first time, allowing digital subscribers to access the issues through the magazine's apps and its website. With 250,000 pages available in more than 350 issues, covering a 31-year period, it represented a considerable undertaking for the staff-owned magazine, which now joins the growing ranks of publications making their history available to the public in a digital format.

UK viewers favour interactive pre-roll video ads "twice as much" as their global counterparts, according to a study from Exponential Interactive. The report analysed more than 9,500 campaigns that ran across Exponential's video ad specialist AdoTube totaling 13.5 billion impressions. It revealed that interactive ads that run ahead of video content accounted for twice the share (72%) of in-stream video ads in the UK in 2012 than they did globally which saw a 36% share.

Spotify is certainly taking this year's Cannes Lions festival seriously. The music streaming service is launching a new campaign to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Lions that will pay tribute to people who have helped "shape creativity" by asking them what songs inspire them. Created by Droga5, the campaign, dubbed #60Inspirations, launched Monday and features people like Arianna Huffington, Maurice Levy, Bob Greenberg, John Legend and John Boiler.

Facebook has appointed Weve's media director Claire Valoti to a senior UK role working alongside UK sales manager Ed Couchman, as part of a series of senior management changes at the social network. Facebook has promoted UK commercial director Stephen Haines to the role of global lead across Omnicom agencies.