Morning Update: W+K unsweetens Mother’s Day; Pandora’s plan for reinvention; What’s hot at NewFronts; Netflix Asia progress ‘limited’

For somebody who just got off of a red-eye flight across the country at six this morning, Tim Westergren seems strangely energised. Perhaps it’s adrenaline. But it would be hard to blame him if there was a shred of terror in there, too. Two days earlier, Westergren had suddenly found himself with a new job: chief executive of Pandora, the Internet radio company he co-founded 16 years ago.

Plenty has changed since the early days—the company has travelled a rocky road. After inventing personalised Internet radio as we know it, Pandora amassed more than 80 million users, went public on the U.S. stock market, quarrelled with the music industry, made up with the music industry, acquired a few music startups—and integrated its radio service into 1,700 types of devices along the way.

Ad Week: What Everyone Will Be Talking About at the NewFronts This Year

No longer a sideshow to the glitzy, glad-handing TV UpFronts, the Digital Content NewFronts have come into their own. A digital offshoot of traditional television’s annual ad sales event, the NewFronts have steadily grown since they launched five years ago.

This year’s event is poised to grab more headlines than ever before, with 37 participants, including six new ones. Here’s our guide to what everyone will be talking about.

Mumbrella Asia: Netflix boss: High content costs and lack of local language content is limiting Asia progress

The CEO and co-founder of Netflix has admitted that the high cost of licensing content is limiting the internet television firm’s progress in Asia.

Talking to staff and journalists at Netflix’s regional headquarters in Singapore, Reed Hastings, who has been with the company since it launched in the late nineties, acknowledged that the limited slate of content on the platform in Singapore was “frustrating” for customers.

The Guardian: Welcome to your virtual cell: could you survive solitary confinement?

There’s a thin mattress on a concrete platform bed, a stainless steel washbasin and toilet, a metal door with a slot for food, and four walls rather too close for comfort. At least, that’s what you can see in a compelling new virtual reality journey built by the Guardian, which replicates the experience of solitary confinement in disturbing detail.

6×9: a virtual experience of solitary confinement aims to highlight thepsychological toll on those subjected to such harsh incarceration for between 22 and 24 hours a day. It offers a visceral, interactive experience through a Guardian app on your smartphone and VR goggles or Google Cardboard headset.

Digiday: Inside Business Insider’s aggressive European expansion

A lot has changed in the 18 months since Business Insider made its 2014 U.K. debut. The U.S.-based digital media company has seen its U.K. traffic grow from 2 million monthly uniques to more than 5 million monthly readers, according to comScore. It beefed up its London staff from 11 to 35 people and generated “triple-digit growth” in advertising revenue.

Oh, and the publisher was also bought by German digital media powerhouse Axel Springer for $343 million (£235m) — a deal which has since prized open the door to further aggressive pan-Europe expansion. That’s not to say it’s been without its sticking points.