Weekly Comms News Round Up 04/07/2013

Sabina is now on maternity leave so here is my pick of comms news curated via @CisionUK from the past two weeks.

Instagram now lets users make videos, right from the same app they already have by Jennifer Whitehead via The Wall UK

Instagram is hoping to ‘do for video what it did for photography’, with the launch of a service that will let people upload 15-second videos – and, of course, give these videos frames and filters to make them look like they were made with far less sophisticated technology than an Android or iPhone.

News UK chief backs digital paywalls by @marksweney via the Guardian

Mike Darcey, the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s UK publishing operation, believes free websites may get more readers than those behind a digital paywall, but says they do not generate meaningful revenue– and that focusing on building a mountain of users is “only good for the ego”.

The head of News UK, the freshly rebranded name for News International, said that giving digital content away free undermines a print business which is still by far and away the engine room of revenues and profits.

Bebo founder Michael Birch buys back failing $850m social network for $1m by @adamsherwin10 via The Independent

It could be the bargain of the century or a triumph of hope over experience. The British founder of Bebo, the social network which briefly soared in the noughties, has bought back the company he originally sold for $850 million for just $1 million.

Launched in 2005 by Michael Birch, with his wife Xochi, Bebo swiftly became the number one online hang-out for UK teenagers to chat and share pictures.

Yahoo acquires moviemaking app Qwiki via The BBC News

Yahoo has acquired Qwiki, the start-up behind an iPhone app that allows users to turn photos, music and videos into short movies automatically.

Yahoo has been on a shopping spree as it looks to win advertisers and users back from rivals Google and Facebook.

Trinity Mirror to double digital staff by @marksweney via the Guardian

Trinity Mirror is to make its biggest bet on an online future to date by hiring 25 digital editorial staff, a move that will double department numbers and increase the number of web stories published per week to 2,000.

The investment, which covers the Mirror and Sunday Mirror, is aiming to massively ramp up the newspapers’ web presence with an eye to hoovering up readers when Rupert Murdoch’s Sun website is put behind a paywall later this summer.