Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), must be paying Jonathan Miller, the former head of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), a lot of money to run the Murdoch digital network. The largest property in the group, MySpace, is a mess and most of the other big websites have been controlled by fiefdoms in the company, especially Fox.
There were credible rumors less than a year ago that Miller was in line to run Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). But the executive's contract with Time Warner prevented him from taking a job with an AOL competitor (AOL is owned by Time Warner, parent company of BloggingStocks) for three years. That agreement is now over.
What does Miller face? Like all other social networks, it has been hard to find a successful revenue model for MySpace. Online advertisers cannot easily target demographic groups on the network sites because they are primarily collections of millions of people who build a web presence to share with friends, co-workers, and anyone else they want to expose to their lives.
Elsewhere in News Corp, Miller may have to run a gauntlet of other executives if he wants to become involved with the online operation of Dow Jones and Fox TV.
Otherwise, it is a great job.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-31-2009 @ 9:53AM
BHarrison said...
Isn't it PAST TIME for American corporations to get RID of the "old school" of CEOs who have failed miserably, and caused the economic demise of our corporations?
What is the "fascination" with these old CEOs who may have "name recognition" in the "fraternity" of old dog CEOs? These guys have been shown to be mostly INEPT, INCOMPETENT, and/or CORRUPT "management personnel" who have orchestrated FRAUDS throughout our corporations as vehicles to increase their personal wealths . . . we don't need these truculent, misguided, unprincipled, and unethical corporate "leaders". These guys are merely "gaming" the bailout and TARP programs to protect their corporate positions and to further their personal wealths.
Isn't it time to purge the vast majority of these corrupt/incompetent old dogs, and their "rubber stamp" Boards of Directors out of our corporations?