We’re pleased to announce that News.me has officially spun out of bitly to run as an independent company under betaworks. Here’s what John Borthwick has to say about the change on his blog:

Over the past year, News.me has been incubated within bitly. Today, we’re pleased to announce that News.me has officially spun out of bitly into an independent company under betaworks. As I wrote earlier this year, with News.me we are seeking to rethink and reinvent the way that people discover news; I’m very excited that News.me is now set up and running as a standalone company with the resources it needs to fully pursue that vision.

Michael Young, who has been with News.me since its inception at the New York Times R&D lab, will continue to lead the development efforts as Chief Technology Officer. He’ll be joined by Rob Haining (of Epicurious, GQ, and Idea Flight app fame) who is leading iOS development, and Justin Van Slembrouck (from Adobe, where he designed the Times Reader application) overseeing User Experience and Design. Jake Levine, formerly Entrepreneur in Residence at betaworks, is joining News.me as General Manager.

News.me is on a mission to reinvent an industry - to use what we’ve learned from the social web to make the discovery and consumption of news better. Today, we have two products:

The News.me iPad app allows you to discover news the way that experts discover news, by exposing the carefully curated reading lists of well known Featured Users like New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington, and Reuters’ Felix Salmon.

The app gives you that same view into the streams of the people you follow on Twitter, whether industry experts or your friends and family.

It does all this in an immersive and tactile experience, perfect for your commute, weekends at home, or catching up on news at the end of the day.

Best of all - in anticipation of a series of additional releases over the next few months, we’re excited to share that the News.me iPad app is now free! Go get it! (If you downloaded the original version of the app, please see our notes below.)*

We’ve also helped you stay more informed, by pairing your morning coffee with the News.me Daily Email, which finds the best stories from your Twitter stream, so you don’t have to. Wading through hundreds of tweets for the most important links is a lot of work - that’s why we do it for you. As before, the Daily Email remains free (though your coffee still costs $5). You can sign up here.

Over the last couple of months, the News.me team has been heads down on the next generation of the product. Expect some exciting changes coming soon!

So if you haven’t already, download the News.me iPad app, sign up for the News.me Daily Email, and help us spread the word.

One last note: as always, we remain committed to ensuring that publishers receive full value in exchange for their content, and are working to develop agreements that are fair for our users and partners. For more information, please contact licensing@news.me.

Stay tuned…!

@myoung, @tolar, @jvanslem, @soniasaraiya, @jrlevine

*Two notes for existing users: First, if you’ve already downloaded News.me, you still have to visit the app store and download the new version. It will not come through as an update. Second, if you’re currently paying a weekly or annual subscription, you will have to manually discontinue your subscription. For instructions, please visit our FAQ. We apologies for the inconvenience - this is a known issue and Apple is working to resolve it.