(picture via NextNet) Forbes has a special story package on News Corp, and its attempts to reinvent itself as major digital player. The main story is a good examination of New Corp’s efforts to monetize the two main properties it bought in 2005: MySpace and IGN. The latter has underperformed, and new Corp COO Peter Chernin says the company expected the site’s numbers to dip as gamers stopped buying titles for their Xboxes and Sony PlayStation 2s, while saving up for the next generation of machines.
And on MySpace, the company is banking on newly appointed Peter Levinsohn. Then, as the story says, it is clear that Murdoch and Chernin have now invested a great deal of the company’s future in DeWolfe and Anderson, who still run MySpace. Their goal is to keep adding features and products that will keep their users on the site. Very few of these add-ons are meant to bring in substantial revenue; a scheme to sell individual songs from unsigned musicians who flock to the site will make them pennies per track, at best.
Then some goof info on how YouTube sliped from under News Corp and its attempts to concoct the next YouTube on its own, via an in-house R&D group. “I think we should be striving to create as many businesses ourselves as we can,” says Chernin. But his staff is unlikely to corner the market on Internet creativity, the story says.
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