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News Corp. (NWS) and MySpace. They've been together for a while. And I have a question: Should they still be together? Is there any reason for the social networking business to be in Rupert Murdoch's empire? Personally, I don't see a rationale for keeping MySpace in the fold.
Of course, I'm sure Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller has a different opinion. In fact, in the following Reuters article, he denies rumors concerning a desire on the part of News Corp. to sell the asset. Too bad, because I think it should be sold. Seriously, my sympathies go out to anyone in charge of bringing MySpace back to relevancy.
Media companies are having a tough time these days in terms of figuring out new strategies for distributing content. At the end of the day, that's what they're all about. And while a MySpace could help in that regard, I think it simply has too much baggage at this point to be of true value.
It's All About Facebook and Twitter
Back in March, I discussed the growth issues the site was having. Let's be real: Facebook and Twitter are dominating the social networking scene, and they will continue to dominate until something else comes along. These two platforms are strong in part because of their simplicity. MySpace is a more busy experience.
Going back to the Reuters piece, Miller states that there is to be a reinvention of the brand. We'll find out eventually what that entails, but I'll tell you this: if it involves any more complex bells and whistles, it may not do much. And if it is simply a bunch of stuff you can get elsewhere, well ... same difference.
Although I am not a shareholder of News Corp., I know I would want the company to redouble its focus on content generation instead of attempting to resuscitate a past fad. While MySpace is a small part of the overall corporate picture, admitting that it was a mistake to buy the site in the first place by selling it now would certainly gain not only my respect, but I'd imagine it would garner the respect of many other pundits, too.
I always look at assets and wonder if their value could be put to better use. Can anyone seriously argue that whatever money would be generated by a sale of MySpace couldn't reap a higher return via some other operation? Maybe News Corp. could sell the site and invest part of the proceeds in the next Avatar movie. Just a thought.
Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change without notice.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-10-2010 @ 8:38PM
RobertBrill281 said...
A couple points:
1. MySpace should not be compared to Facebook or Twitter anymore. They should be compared to Valueclick, Specific Media and Traffic Marketplace. They are now an incredibly rich source user behavioral data.
2. Myspace's new value is their ability to sell said behavioral data to help advertisers buy audience and not content as a proxy for audience.
3. I think MySpace should be sellin their data on data exchanges like Blue Kai. The new ecosystem of ad exchanges, DSPs and trading desks could be MySpace's savior.
4. Along with selling their data MySpace should be getting increased CPMs on their billions of remnant impression via the efficient ad exchanges.
6. I don't think MySpace cares what pundits have to say. They still have access to over 60 million unique users, a they perform very well for advertisers communicating to teenagers.
Regards,
Robert
7-11-2010 @ 3:45AM
Brian said...
Myspace was independent media before newscorp bought it, prostitutionalized it, and now is killing it. Facebook and Twitter are thriving because newscorp effectively took it off the market. This is what happens when a giant corporation with no soul or purpose or big why other than to buy everything takes on an asset that previously had purpose. Myspace was the social networking industry standard just a couple of years ago. From a business standpoint your article is right on. Its got no use any longer. Ethically, I hope other social networking sights, especially ones like FB that give people who are sick of newscorp running things a voice, learn from this and resist selling out.
7-11-2010 @ 11:24AM
future-autos.blogspot.com said...
Myspace is doing just fine. It still has 100 million members and a HUGE music presence.
7-12-2010 @ 4:24AM
Michael Sanders said...
Myspace has become Yourspace... The problem is, there are too many yous and many yous are undesirable folks.
Dump it!
7-28-2010 @ 5:05PM
Mike said...
What about regular dumping of some hard content. Like a disk cleanup effect on a regular intervals. Like for some at least once a month. Others once a week, and still others once a day.