Apple plans to expand iTunes Radio to English-speaking countries outside the U.S. by early 2014, beating Pandora to the U.K. and Canada, said sources. people with knowledge of the situation said. iTunes Radio is also set to start early next year in Australia and New Zealand, where Pandora already operates. Apple is moving faster than Pandora because it secured agreements for international rights with Vivendi SA,  Universal Music Group and other record companies, reports Bloomberg.

Justin Smith started as CEO of the Bloomberg Media Group Sept. 18. But in a new staff he memo announcedg a “hundred-day strategy process” to chart the company’s course for growth for the next few years. The effort will involve 100-plus people at the company, including many top managers, working in 10 to 15 groups on ways to grow the company's various platforms. He also announced his first big hire, Zazie Lucke, as head of global advertiser marketing. Lucke is responsible for generating marketing ideas across all platforms.

Spotify hopes more artists see rewards from working with the streaming service. During a SXSW 2013 keynote interview, cofounder and CEO Daniel Ek outlined his master plan to accomplish the company’s goals. He painted an ambitious vision for his digital platform, which at the time boasted 24 million worldwide total users and 6 million paid subscribers. “My goal is to not just convert the 24 million into buying [a subscription],” Ek told the Los Angeles Times. “My goal is to get 1 billion using streaming services rather than a piracy service." Spotify so far has poured $500 million back into …

Silk the cloud-based, Web-data platform is moving on to its next phase. Its first paid product, Silk for Teams, is aimed enterprise users who want to use the platform to produce cleaner internal data sets and eventually to create data visualizations that work with paywalls. The company is also announcing an extra $1.6 million from existing investor NEA, which will help Silk continued expansion into the U.S. and add more features to the paid product. Marketers from US business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) …

The CW and Ford have teamed up on a cross-platform initiative that will give viewers a look at new and returning shows. The campaign incorporates elements from Ford’s social engagement effort, "Fiesta Movement: A Social Remix." Five "agents," young brand amassadors, will introduce the 2014 Ford Fiesta to fans of "Reign" and "The Originals," as well as ongoing CW shows, like "Vampaire Diaries." the CW and Ford have teamed up on a cross-platform initiative that will give viewers a …

As Twitter prepares for its IPO, it's also trying to become part of the TV ad economy. The social networking company has forged partnerships with television content owners, such as CBS, MTV and the NFL, through a program it calls Amplify. The platform lets content owners beam real-time video clips to Twitter users who may have seen - or could be interested in - their TV programming. Plus, marketers can communicate with viewers who saw their TV ads. TV tie-ins allow Twitter to diversify its revenue stream beyond the relatively small niche of digital advertising campaigns, a move that should …

The San Diego Reader is mining gold from its archives and releasing ot as a collection of six eBooks, the first installment of a series to showcase the literary quality of Southern California-flavored journalism. Guiding the Reader’s publishing program is David Wogahn, founder of Carlsbad-based eBook consulting firm Sellbox, who notes: “It’s a smart way to reach new readers, deepen relationships with long-time readers, and build new revenue streams.” Five of the first six books are part of the series Reader Shorts, titles whose length is often referred to as long-form journalism (5,000 to 30,000 words.)

Circa released version 2.0 of its mobile news reading app with a focus on breaking news and an app for Android users. Its designed as a daily brief of top stories, shows as bullet points. Circa's breaking news notifications creates a "stub" with the basic points of the story. Users can "follow" stories to receive automated updates, adding new elements to stories as they evolve without rehashing what has been previously written.

Twitter has just filed its IPO, looking to raise $1 billion. In its S-1 document, the company revealed the risk to long-term viability: the loss of user retention. Twitter has seen big user growth over the past few years, going from 167 million monthly actives last September to 218 million at the time of the filing. But the S-1 notes: "We anticipate that our user growth rate will slow over time as the size of our user base increases." Another potential risk to the company: driving users away with an influx of ads and spam.

By 2017, 5.1 billion people will be mobile phone users around the globe — almost 1 billion more mobile users than the 4.3 billion people worldwide using them now. Asia will see the most growth -- from 2.4 million users now, there will be 2.9 billion in four years.