Project Rubicon Picks Ad Staff From FIM
The Rubicon Project, the LA-based company aiming to optimise publishers’ unused online ad inventory, is raiding yet another rival as it cont…
Fox Interactive Media
Advertisement
FoxSports.com Post-FIM: Takes Stake in OpenSports; Revamp Planned
FoxSports.com, which just moved out of the Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS) umbrella and came under the TV side of Fox Sports and Fox Sport…
Industry Moves: Screenlife; Giant Realm, Entertainment Weekly, Omniture, News Corp.
— Screenlife Games: Barry Watts has joined the DVD-game company as its CEO. Watts most recently served as president and co-founder of digit…
Forecast: Social Net Ad Spending To Drop In ’09; MySpace To Suffer, But Not Facebook
Total social network ad spending in the U.S. will drop 3 percent to $1.1 billion in 2009, from $1.2 billion last year, according to project…
Advertisement
Earnings: News Corp. Operating Income Down 47 Percent; FIM Drops 11 Percent
Boosted by the the partial sale of its stake in NDS and a tax gain, News Corp (NYSE: NWS). managed to overcome a 47 percent nosedive in oper…
The White House’s Latest Web 2.0 Push
The White House plunged deeper into the world of social networking Friday, creating profiles on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook. The new acco…
Advertisement
Coming Soon: Social Networking With The Feds
If all goes well, soon you’ll be able to meet up with the folks from the Agricultural Research Service or the Office of Personnel Management…
How Open Is Your Network? MySpaceID Gets Upgraded
The race to create the most “open” social network continues: MySpaceID has gotten some upgrades. The platform, which lets MySpace members ta…
Advertisement
Do Users Like AOL Or Facebook More? The Answer May Surprise You
*AOL* ruled the ‘net back when most people still had dial-up, but when it comes to web 2.0, most people think about it as an also-ran. But t…
@ MWC: Fox Mobile
Fox Mobile is reviewing its iPhone application strategy, partly-Berlin-based Fox Mobile CEO (formerly Jamba) CEO Mauro Montanaro told us at…
Advertisement
Broadband Content Bits: MySpace/Endemol; Vatican/YouTube; WordPress TV; Kutcher/Sundance
— MySpace, Endemol launch Web-based reality series: MySpace and Endemol have partnered to launch Get Married on MySpace, a 13-episode Web…
Earnings Call: News Corp’s Murdoch: ‘Stringent Cost-Cutting’ But ‘Not Going To Starve Our Business’
News Corp (NYSE: NWS) Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch expects the current slump to extend at least through 2009, telling analysts and invest…
Earnings: News Corp Profit Drops Nearly 30 Percent; MySpace Pushes FIM Revs Up 17 Percent
News Corp (NYSE: NWS) reported higher revenues for the quarter ending Sept. 30 but took a hit on the bottom line as double-digit increases i…
@ Innovation 360: News Corp’s Chernin: Times Are Tough, Just Ask Joe The Plumber
A day after another “one of the worst days on Wall St.,” it would be hard to blame media executives talking about surviving as opposed to fi…
Fox’s Simulcasting Shows For College Audience; And the Point Is?
Fox is touting a new streaming arrangement it is launching: it will stream the premiere of two of its anticipated shows “Fringe” and season…
News Corp: FIM Revs Up 23 Percent, Yahoo Talks Totally Over; Cablevision Nets At Right Price
Following a rundown of the numbers, News Corp (NYSE: NWS). CFO Dave DeVoe got to the key figures left out of the earnings release: FIM numbe…
Earnings: News Corp. In Line; FIM Income Down On Higher Costs; TV Crushed
News Corp (NYSE: NWS). has reported revenue of $8.59 billion for the quarter ended June 30, for 16.5 percent growth over the prior year’s qu…
Industry Moves: MySpace ODs On New Execs; Oberfest Leaves LAT To Join
MySpace had a brief flurry of activity this afternoon, when reports came out that it had done some trimming of its staff. Turns out it was a…
MySpace Revamps Classifieds Business With Oodle
As social nets look to increase their ad revenues, MySpace is taking a more serious stab at the online classified market with a new channel.…
MySpace Tries For Nerd Cred With OpenID, Data Availability Implementations
A couple of announcements from MySpace that will mean nothing to 99.999 percent of its userbase… the social networking site, owned by News…
FIM Moving To New LA HQ In Playa Del Rey; Consolidating All LA Offices
Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS) is celebrating its third birthday* by finally announcing a new headquarters that should be big enough to h…
The New MySpace Homepage Is…
…live now, the one we mentioned in a post last week. The takeover advertiser for today is The Dark Knight, the Batman movie from Warner Br…
MySpace Biggest Chance At Hitting The Refresh Button: Relaunching Homepage and Other Functions
MySpace, which realized late last year that it needed to hit the refresh button on its design, layout and functionalities after years of ban…
Facebook Agonistes: Advertisers, Adults, Developers Pulling Back; Banking On Global
While it looked as if Facebook might have rebounded quickly from its Beacon debacle last fall, Fortune contends the revolution is steadily l…
After MySpace And Facebook, Google Completes Open Trifecta
If you must have your news accompanied by a gripping narrative, then you could say that on back-to-back-to-back business days, MySpace, Face…
Social Networks And Profitability: Facebook, MySpace Look Beyond Ads
Much has been made about Facebook’s $15 billion valuation, but when will it start making some actual profits? Mike Murphy, the social net’s…
Coming Soon To The Endangered Species List: Online Ad Sales Teams?
The self-serve ads option has been all the rage for search ads the last few years. Increasingly, now, do-it-yourself is becoming similarly p…
Earnings: News Corp Q1 Revenues Up 16 Percent; ‘Strong Revenue Growth’ For FIM — Higher Costs, Too
Rupert Murdoch probably won’t send a thank-you note to John Malone but News Corp (NYSE: NWS) delivered a profit of $2.7 billion, or $0.91 pe…
FIM Aims For Local Advertisers With Self-Serve Ad Offerings
As it continues to refine and expand its range of ad offerings, Fox Interactive Media (NYSE: NWS) is turning to local TV stations in the Fox…
New Fox Interactive Group Moves Into Yahoo Center In Santa Monica
We had heard rumors to this effect earlier in the year, and some gossip and speculation about whether Fox Interactive could get the rights t…
Fox Ad Net Comes To UK, Aiming To Scoop News Corp Inventory
News Corp (NYSE: NWS) is bringing its .Fox Networks (“dot Fox”) web ads network to the UK with the aim of making it the exclusive ad net of…
Broadband Content Bits: Showtime; iTunes-Starz; Yahoo Show; Fox’s ‘Rookie’; Sony; NYT Style Mag
— Showtime’s The Tudors to premiere across video sites: As Showtime’s historical drama series The Tudors gets ready to kick off its second…
Yahoo Announces OpenSocial Support; Joins Google, MySpace To Form Non-Profit Foundation
An interesting turn of events on the OpenSocial scene, with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) agreeing to embrace the Google-backed social app distribution…
News Corp And Yahoo Talk On Combining Digital; 20 Percent Yahoo Stake; Outside PE Firm: Reports
This has been proposed before by both parties and Rupert Murdoch even admitted to talking last year about combining some part of MySpace wit…
MySpace Dev Platform Goes Live; Full Monetization For Developers
MySpace, part of News Corp (NYSE: NWS). which pre-announced last week that it will announce its developer platform this week, is doing it th…
Earnings: NWS: FIM Revenue Up 87 Percent; $62 million From Google
As noted in our earlier report, News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) “other” segment generated $23 million in operating profit for the quarter ending De…
Slow-Going For Social Net Ad Revenues; Will MSFT+YHOO Spur It?
Despite the increasing popularity of social networking sites, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Fox Interactive and others are st…
Earnings: NWS: Flat Profit Despite Double-Digit Segments; ‘Real’ Internet Profits — Thanks, GOOG
News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) profit for the quarter ending Dec. 31 was essentially flat, barely budging to $832 million ($0.27 cents per share)…
MySpace to Spin Off Its Incubator Into A Separate Company; Financed By News Corp
In an otherwise unremarkable feature story in NYT about MySpace’s new plans, an intriguing piece of news buried towards the end: that MySpac…
Yahoo, NYT And MySpace Remain On Top Of The Charts: Confusing Slice Of The Stats Pie
Questions about the accuracy of online traffic data are well known, though new numbers never fail generate a discussion. A batch of new char…
Lights, Camera, Action: MySpace Debuts Celeb Channel
MySpace has often touted its promotional value to celebrities. It now has a specific channel that collects much of its star power in one pla…
Citi Media: Peter Chernin, President/COO: News Corp.: No Economic Worries Here
Facebook may be growing faster than MySpace and the threat of a recession looms. But Peter Chernin, News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) president and C…
Universal Music Restricting Music Streaming On Certain Sites
Universal Music Group, the largest music label, has implemented a new online streaming policy for its artists: each song for its artists wil…
Interview: Lee Fenton, COO, Jamba: New Focus On Europe, Music, Simpsons
News Corp and Verisign’s Jamba mobile content JV will base its CEO in Berlin, become MySpace’s m-commerce facilitator in six European countr…
Earnings: NWS Revenue Up 19 Percent; Profit Dips But Operating Income Up 23 Percent To $1.05 Billion
News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) reported operating income of $1.05 billion for the quarter ending Sept. 30, up 23 percent from the same quarter in 20…
Fox Drops Ban On Universal Music; Was Reaction To Still Unsettled MySpace Lawsuit
The WSJ reports that News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) has lifted a ban against using almost any music controlled by Universal Music Group in its movie…
MySpace Launches Gaming Channel; Produces First Original Drama
MySpace has tapped casual gamer Oberon Media to help the social net develop its own games channel by next year, Reuters reported. As current…
Updated: MySpace: First Licensing Deal With Major Label, Sharing Revs With Sony BMG; Skype?
We’ve been hearing for a while about intense efforts within MySpace to explore new approaches and business models when it comes to music. Mu…
MySpace: DeWolfe, Anderson Deal Done?; SF Office; International Expansion
With the clock about to run out in a matter of days on the initial two-year contracts of top MySpace execs Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, i…
Facebook Working On a Music Platform For Bands; Not iTunes Killer, But MySpace; Apple Tieup
Facebook is working on an artist platform to be launched later this year, which in essence is supposed to be better than what MySpace allows…
The Ad Age 100 Leading Media Companies; Internet Revenue Up 22.7 Percent; Time Warner Still On Top;
Ad Age has come out with its annual list of the 100 largest US media companies ranked by revenue … Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) continues to to…
Merrill Lynch Conference: Levinsohn Touts MySpace As Facebook Rises; Google Contract Will Be Signed
During the Q&A portion of his presentation at Merrill Lynch’s Media & Entertainment conference in Marina Del Rey, CA, Peter Levinsohn, presi…
Goldman Sachs Communacopia: Rupert Murdoch, CEO, News Corp.: His Mind On WSJ.com
News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch is clearly brimming with confidence, following his company’s successful run at Dow Jones (NY…
MySpace Targeted Ad Efforts; 80 Percent Clickthrough Likehood Increase; Self-Serve Launching in Nov
MySpace, owned by News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), is going to outline its online ad targeting efforts in details tomorrow at the Merrill Lynch Media…
Internet Video Watching Still Increasing: Report
It’s no mystery why the online video space attracts fresh investments on a seemingly daily basis. Comscore is out with its analysis of the…
MySpace, 'thirtysomething' Team Pair Up For New 'Network-Quality' Series; Rival Social Net?
Another Hollywood broadband endeavor … Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, creators of thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, are bringi…
Industry Moves: FIM's IGN Changes GMs: Strang Out; Bahat In
Fox Interactive Media is bringing in News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) vet Roy Bahat to replace Dale Strang as GM. In a memo to staff announcing the mo…
iLike and MySpace In Battle of the Bands
Monday, we published paidContent:UK Editor Robert Andrews’ interview with MySpace SVP Jamie Kantrowitz about rising competition from Faceboo…
Chernin: News Corp. Won't Sever Ties With Apple Buts Wants To Talk About Pricing
News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) isn’t inclined to follow JV partner NBCU’s (NYSE: GE) lead when it comes to serving a non-renewal notice for video do…
Interview: Jamie Kantrowitz, SVP Marketing & Content, Europe, MySpace: 'Facebook Won't Kill Us'
For months, MySpace has played down the phenomenal growth of rival Facebook. The former university network this summer posted annual UK grow…
MySpace's Fashion Channel Is Ready To Wear For Upscale Consumers
MySpace (NYSE: NWS) debuts its revamped its Fashion channel today, ahead of New York’s Fashion Week starting September 5. Its makeover compl…
MySpace Debating Allowing Users To Start Commerce/Selling On Their Pages
After holding out for long and being the subject of some controversies along the route, MySpace (NYSE: NWS) is debating on whether to allow…
MySpace Ad Targeting Expected To Grow Over Next Year: Report
As Rafat noted earlier this week, the WSJ expressed some excitement over Facebook’s plans to place targeted ads inside users’ profile pages.…
Industry Moves: Kennedy New EVP-Strategy And Corporate Development, FIM
Fox Interactive Media has appointed Jack Kennedy to the new post of EVP-Strategy and Corporate Development. Kennedy is moving over from Fox…
Fox Interactive Gets Into Affiliates TV Website Management; Signs With 160 Sites
Fox Interactive (NYSE: NWS), till now managing its own owned-and-operated businesses, is now moving one step outside: it will now be managin…
Earnings: News Corp.: First Profitable Year For FIM: $550 Million In Revenue, $10 Million Profit
News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) beat estimates with profit of $890 million for the spring quarter, up 24 percent from $718 million in the same quarte…
Industry Moves: Jeff King Moves From FIM to 19 Entertainment As U.S. New Media head
Jeff King, the head of American Idol’s digital media efforts (formally VP & GM at Fox Interactive Media, Fox Branded Entertainment and Ameri…
MySpace’s Original Content Push: Foil Against Facebook?
Read the post below first for the context, and then this: one thing that seems to be happening is that MySpace is now going full steam ahead…
What Can Myspace Do In Face of Facebook?
Everyone and their mother-in-law now has advice for MySpace on what it should do in the face of rise of Facebook..Bear Stearns analysts Spen…
Nielsen To Drop Page View Ratings In Favor Of Time Spent
Earlier today we wrote about IAB’s efforts to standardize web video metrics. Now, news that Nielsen/NetRatings is planning a major shift in…
Mrs. Murdoch To Take Over At Chief of Strategy At MySpace China
Wendi Deng, the Chinese-born wife of Rupert Murdoch, finally has an official post within News Corp, as chief of strategy for MySpace’s China…
MySpace Strategy Could Be Shifting To Meet Facebook: Report
The FT is claiming a “scoop of interpretation” from an interview with MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, suggesting a change in approach to b…
@ OMMA: For Online Video, Pre-Roll Works, But The Search Is On For A Better Way
Advertisers need to be more creative when it comes to monetizing online video, panelists at MediaPost’s OMMA Video conference in New York ag…
MySpace’s Anderson, DeWolfe Want Megabucks To Re-Up With News Corp.: Report
If Nikki Finke’s info is correct — and I’ve confirmed some of it — Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are asking for the kind of money that wo…
MySpace-Yahoo Trial Balloon: Possibly Selling MySpace To Yahoo; Outsourcing Search To Google
Just before Monday’s announcement of Terry Semel’s departure from Yahoo daily operations crossed the wire Monday, CNBC’s David Faber posted…
MySpace Testing Chinese Instant Messaging, Video Service
MySpace China is urgently developing an instant messaging client that will incorporate video amongst other features. CEO Luo Chuan told Reut…
Marchex Buys 100 Spanish-language Sites For $10 million; Teams Up With Fox LatAm
Not quite sure what to make of this … after acquiring 100 Spanish-language websites for $10 million, online advertising/lead generation co…
Multimedia Storage Provider Fabrik Gets $24.9 Million; Levinsohn On Board
Online content storage company Fabrik has secured $24.9 million in a fourth round. The financing was headed by 3i, which was joined by previ…
Fox To Offer MySpace Extra Promo For SuperBowl Advertisers
An obvious thing to do: Fox, which is gearing up for TV upfronts, is luring SuperBowl advertisers in with a promise to give them a larger We…
Brands Find ‘Momentum Effect’ Through Social Net Marketing, MySpace Study Finds
About 70 percent of Americans are participating in online social networks, according research commissioned by MySpace, along with Isobar and…
First Look: MySpace News
MySpace News finally went live this morning — beta, of course — and the first impulse is to shrug. One reason: the pedestrian design of My…
MySpace Launching Social News Service
As expected, MySpace is launching a social news service, imaginatively called MySpace News (not yet live,will launch later tonight sometime…
Industry Moves: FIM European Head David Fischer Leaves
David Fischer, the managing director of Fox Interactive Europe, has left the company, according to an internal memo sent out by MySpace CEO…
MySpace Ad Revenue Pegged To Grow 201 Percent: Merrill Lynch
After bringing in a relatively meager $90 million in ad revenue, MySpace is poised to generate ad revenues of $271 million this year
What Happens When MySpace Turns Out To Be Their Space?
It’s a tricky thing for a company — convincing people that they have a space of their own (as long as they follow certain communal rules) w…
MySpace Also Launches Political Channel; Follows YouTube
MySpace has launched a political channel as the presidential race heats up in U.S. Called the Impact channel, it has links to MySpace pages…
TimesSelect To Be Free For College Students, Faculty; NYT Teams Up With MySpace For Kristof Contest
In January ’06, NYT.com began offering its premium TimesSelect for half price to academics. It seemed like a pretty good deal at the time, y…
MySpace To Launch News Service, May Need Age Checks
MySpace is planning to get into the news business early in the second quarter, according to Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog…the surprising thing…
Bear Stearns: FIM President Talks Video Portal, Third-Party Distribution
FIM President Pete Levinsohn made his investor-circuit debut at the Bear Stearns conference in Florida Wednesday and it sounds like he cover…
“Fox On Demand” Extended To Affiliates; Could Put Streaming, Downloads On 200-plus Affiliate Sites
Three Fox units are banding together for what the News Corp. companies call a “landmark deal” that will make Fox on Demand available to more…
FIM-SDC: Deal Potentially Worth North Of $100 Million
Fox Interactive Media isn’t disclosing the financial details about its acquisition of Strategic Data Corp. but I’ve been able to piece some…
FIM-SDC: Interview with Pete Levinsohn, President, FIM
Pete Levinsohn had a coming-out party of sorts today as president of FIM, explaining the reasoning behind the company’s first major acquisit…
FIM Acquires Interactive Ad Tech Company Strategic Data Corp.
Fox Interactive Media has made what the company calls its first “major” acquisition since low-profile Peter Levinsohn took over late last ye…
Social Networks Roundup: MySpaces for the Fashionable, the Parental, and the Virtual
If you think people aren’t posing enough in MySpace, have we got a social network for you. According to Reuters, British fashion designers J…
MySpace’s Filtering Efforts Begin
Seems like this will be the content-filtering week: the YouTube-DMI deal, the Bolt-GoFish-UMG deal, and now this: MySpace has started a pilo…
Earnings: News Corp.: FIM: $125 Million Revenue For The Quarter; Google Deal Binding, Not Complete
Listening to the News Corp. earnings call now and, as expected, some more details on Fox Interactive Media during the prepared remarks and n…
MySpace Signs Mobile Deal With Vodafone; Initial Launch Set for U.K. In 1H07
Vodafone has an exclusive deal with MySpace allowing mobile users in the U.K. access to the social networking website on the move. Under the…
MySpace’s Deal With Google Hits a Bump, With eBay In The Middle: WSJ
Some of this was hinted after it became clear Google would be buying YouTube, and News Corp was passed over in the YouTube “auction” process…
News Corp In Talk With Online Ad Tech Firm?
Hah…strange are the ways of tips. I heard about this possibly month or two ago, and I can’t remember who and how, and now Om reports that…
MySpace Adds More Safety Features; Will Distribute 'Amber Alerts' To Members
As it continues to fend off lawsuits saying it hasn’t done enough to combat sexual predators targeting minors, MySpace has agreed to send ou…
MySpace Risks Teen Support With Monitoring Software; Could Calm Advertisers And Parents
MySpace hopes to pull off a difficult balancing act with its new parental notification software: assuage demands from 33 state attorney gene…
Americal Idol To Stream Full Show Online This Season; Fremantle Came Close To Ditching Fox For Site
The American Idol juggernaut is about to start its seventh season on U.S. TV, and AdAge has some good details on the $2.5 billion behemoth f…
MySpace’s Print Foray: Marmalade
Earlier this year, there were rumors that MySpace was looking to launch a print magazine. That didn’t happen, but turns out it is tying up w…
AJAX, Other Web Changes Signal Start Of Traffic Metrics Shift
Following yesterday’s news that FIM topped Yahoo in comScore Media Metrix page views for the first time, BetaNews has a solid look at the ef…
When Numbers Mean Anything And Nothing: iTunes Sales; FIM-YHOO
It would be easy to report a couple of stat-based stories making the rounds — iTunes sales slowing and FIM beating Yahoo in page views –…
MySpace, YouTube Are “Empty Vessels” For User Content: Critic
It’s close to a compulsion — this need for traditional media to expound on the real meaning of user-gen media. Social phenomenon. Old wine…
@ Media Week: UBS Day 1: Chernin On FIM Management Switch, Growth Prospects And More
UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff covered a lot of ground in a far-ranging chat with Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corp. The room was se…
Chernin, R. Levinsohn: No Truth To Rumored Dismissal
While I was out last week, Tony Perkins managed to start a kerfluffle about former FIM president Ross Levinsohn allegedly raising a fund (a…
MySpace In Talks With IDG China To China Entry
This China-entry talks for MySpace have been going on for a while, and it has been reported before that the push is being headed by News Cor…
UMG Sues MySpace Claiming Copyright Infringement: News Corp. Unit Says In Compliance
Universal Music Group continues to play hard ball in the digital realm … With negotiations at a standstill today the Vivendi subsidiary fi…
Ross Levinsohn Resigns As President Of FIM; Will Be Replaced By Peter Levinsohn
Ross Levinsohn has resigned as president of FIM and will be succeeded by Peter Levinsohn, president of digital media for the Fox Entertainme…
@ Web 2.0: Ross Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive
Ross Levinsohn, the head of Fox Interactive, did a Q&A at Web 2.0.
— GoogTube: It was the right deal for YouTube and interesting tool for G…
Mark Jung Leaves FIM/IGN; No Immediate Replacement As COO
Now I really wish I’d started a pool when Mark Jung, co-founder of IGN and CEO when it was acquired by News Corp., took the job as COO of Fo…
The Wishful Thinking on ByeSpace
Yes, journalists get a perverse sense of pleasure writing about flavor-of-the-month-now-being-passe stories. Case in point, the two stories…
FIM Served 20 Percent Of Streaming Video In U.S. During August
We’re not big fans of constant traffic reports but with all the fuss about video lately the latest stats are worth noting … Fox Interactiv…
@ Mipcom: Will Social Editing Displace Traditional Media?
The notion that content has to be edited is a legacy of old media, said Simon Assaad, co-founder of Heavy.com. “The beautiful thing about th…
Legal Challenges To MySpace Sale Dismissed In LA Court
At roughly the same time that Brad Greenspan, founder of Intermix Media predecessor eUniverse and an Intermix shareholder, was making a new…
Fox Hopes New Season VOD On MySpace, Fox Local Sites Will Keep Interest During MLB Playoffs
We wrote at length about Fox on Demand back in August, when the first network-local primetime streaming venture started its trial phase in 9…
Weekend Reading: Rohan’s Spacegasm
You have read about it aplenty, in the last few days.
Analyst: MySpace Will Be Worth $15 Billion In Next Few Years
I have no idea what the folks at Fox Interactive put in Jordan Rohan’s drink but the RBC Capital analyst came away from a Tuesday meeting co…
OMMA East: Ross Levinsohn, President, FIM
News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media has proven you can buy enough traffic — 131 million uniques at last count — to create a massive online…
Communacopia XV: Murdoch: No Spin-Off of Fox Interactive
Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia XV conference started today in NYC, and various media CEOs are presenting. Among them, News Corp CEO Rupert Murd…
Broadband Content Bits: AOL-Viiv; Gold Rush; Fox Streams; MySpace Borat; Current TV
— AOL, Intel link to bring movies to PCs and TVs: AOL will let owners of Viiv PCs, an entertainment PC platform designed and promoted by In…
More News Corp. Video Synergy; Simpsons’ Season Opener Will Preview Online
In the latest intersection of News Corp. web traffic and TV programming, the first seven minutes of Fox Network’s “The Simpsons” season open…
MySpace To Start Selling Music Downloads in MP3 Format; May Take Stake In Snocap
This is possibly be the worst time to get a story out (c’mon guys…give us some rest, will ya): MySpace is going to allows the bands (3 mil…
What Happens When MySpace Founders Leave?
I’m being slightly sensationalist here in extracting the last paragraph of this long cover story in the latest Fortune story about MySpace a…
MySpace Magazine? Maybe, Maybe Not
It’s close to inevitable in today’s multi-platform age. Put together a sizeable audience for one medium and brainstorms about other potentia…
Fox Interactive Media’s Growing Empire (State Building)
An unusual story for WaPo…it offers a rather colorful take on Fox Interactive Media’s spiraling empire in L.A. News Corp. is housing many…
Fox Becomes First Network To Stream Primetime Shows On Local Sites
Fox has launched Fox on Demand, a fascinating network first that makes a network’s stations actual distributors of streaming primetime conte…
FIM Expands Downloads To Include Movies, More News Corp. Shows; Using IGN’s Direct2Drive
Late last year, 20th Century Fox and Fox Interactive Media announced a deal to deliver movies via IGN Entertainment’s Direct2Drive service d…
FIM-Google: More Details; Already Talking About Other Possibilities
Considerable conversation during the News Corp. earnings call about Monday’s announcement of the $900 million-minimum search deal with Googl…
FIM-Google: Levinsohn: “When Sergey Comes Down, They’re Pretty Serious”
It took five days to make a deal that answered a question raised before Fox Interactive Media was even launched, let alone acquiring compani…
Fox Interactive’s Call For A Search & Contextual Ad Vendor Answered: Google; $900 Million Guarantee
The biggest search and contextual ad serving account on the planet, up for grabs for a while, has been taken now: Fox Interactive has signed…
Murdoch, MySpace & More
Rupert Murdoch’s claim of surprise that MySpace.com has grown so fast without any marketing may be the mogul’s most disingenuous moment in a…
MySpace’s Growing Third-Party Ecosystem
BW’s Steve Rosenbush placed MySpace on a short list of companies large enough to create an “ecosystem” of third-party partners today (iPod b…
MySpace’s Comedy Section’s Official Launch; Improv Deal
MySpace, which made a soft launch of its comedy section in April, is officially launching it today, and has cut a marketing deal today with…
Yahoo-MySpace Ranking Spat
Well, MySpace is happy, Yahoo is not: measurement firm hitwise came out with some numbers yesterday saying MySpace is
News Corp. Estimates FIM Revenue Close To $500 Million In FY07; MySpace-Softbank May Team Up In Japa
According to UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch told investors in Australia this week that Fox Interactive Media…
@ What MySpace Means: Does Anyone Know?
If I had
MySpace.com Sued For $30 Million For Alleged Assault On Teen; Announces New Security Measures
You knew this was coming … MySpace.com is being sued for $30 million by a 14-year-old Texas girl who says she was sexually assaulted by so…
MySpace Marks 11 Countries For Expansion; Appoints New European Head
So said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace, in this FT story. It is going to use UK as a beachhead for a push into Europe…Wolfe…
Industry Moves: Trimble Promoted To SVP-Ad Sales, FIM
As part of the ad sales build-out at Fox Interactive Media, John Trimble has been promoted to the new post of SVP-ad sales. Trimble was resp…
More On MySpace.com’s Channel Strategy
MySpace.com continues to roll out new channels as a way of attracting advertisers to a more controlled version of the usual social networkin…
MySpace Homepage Costing Close To $1 Million a Day
So says this AdAge story…for advertising on MySpace homepage. It has secured ad deals with Walt Disney Co. and Pepsi-Cola, while the daily…
American Idol Download Numbers
Hot off the press, besides Taylor Hicks’ win, are numbers on American Idol performance downloads, from AmericanIdol.com. According to Fox co…
AOL’s Barrett to Join Fox Interactive As Chief Revenue Officer
Michael Barrett, executive VP at AOL Media Networks, is leaving the company to become Chief Revenue Officer at Fox Interactive Media, report…
MySpace Seeks Search Link Google or Microsoft
Updated below: So says this FT story…so what happened to Murdoch’s plans to buy a search engine? I suppose they couldn’t find a good one l…
MySpace To Offer “24” Downloads
News Corp. is finally indulging in some synergy on the digital media side: MySpace.com will offer $1.99-an-episode downloads of two seasons…
House Republicans Target Social Networking Sites With Bill
The latest regulatory effort to control the internet: a proposed bill would prohibit access to MySpace.com and numerous other sites with soc…
Earnings: NWS: Preparing For New Media Rev Growth
New media talk during the News Corp. earnings calls with analysts and press focused on steps being taken now with an eye to establishing lea…
IM Heats Up With Betas From MySpace, Windows Live
While AOL prepares its entry into site-based social networks, MySpace is rolling out its own IM. At the same time, Microsoft is updating Mes…
“American Idol” Digital Downloads En Route: Report
Plans call for performances from Tuesday night’s “American Idol” episode to be sold on the official site as digital audio and video downloa…
MySpace Video: #1 In Matter Of Days
Last week, Rafat reported on an interesting comment from FIM president Ross Levinsohn about the number of video uploads on MySpace surpassin…
FIM Adds kSolo; Makes Newroo Acquisition Official
FIM is acknowledging the acquisition of real-time news aggregator Newroo, reported last month, and also has picked up kSolo, an online karao…
MySpace.com Adds Comedy Section With Heavy Commercial Emphasis
A heads up from Pali Research’s Richard Greenfield, who caught the addition of a comedy section at MySpace.com, a continuation of the compan…
@ Milken: MySpace Videos vs YouTube
At Milken conference today, it is a media heavy day….our panel went well and I will report on that later. But the early morning (7:45 AM?…
Next Step: Making MySpace Pay
Second only to Yahoo in page views but with an estimated less than one-twentieth of the older company’s revenue, MySpace.com is now trying t…
SimplyHired.com Gets $13.5 Million In Funding, Including $3.5 Million From News Corp.
News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media is investing $3.5 million in job search engine SimplyHired.com, while VC Foundation Capital puts in $10 m…
MySpace.com Names Chief Security Officer
MySpace is moving fast, and it has to: it is hiring a former federal prosecutor to be its first chief security officer. Hemanshu Nigam, prev…
The MySpace Economy; Cleaning Up
There was the eBay economy, the Google economy, the iPod economy and now the MySpace economy, and Forbes.com has a nice story on how ambitio…
Can MySpace Really Make Money?
There is a growing buzz online and offline (at Digital Hollywood, I heard some senior execs in the industry expressing their doubts) about w…
BOA: News Corp. Would Be Interested In Facebook At Right Price; Hint: $2 Billion Not It
I’m getting weary of the $2 billion figure now being flung around without any sense of reality. BW made the mistake of raising it and now pe…
MySpace Living Up To The Hype And Then Some For News Corp. — So Far
Mark Gunther looks at the social network landscape and concludes: “News Corp.’s purchase of MySpace is looking like that rarest of rarities…
Profiting From The Live Web
: Newsweek’s April 3 issue hypes social networking with “Putting The ‘We’ In Web” — and the glossy images of Flickr creators Stewart Butter…
Friendster Was Its Own Worst Enemy; MySpace Faces External Threats
Danah Boyd, a Ph student at UC-Berkely and a social media researcher at Yahoo, thoughtfully compares Friendster and MySpace, explaining why…
Fox Interactive Acquires News Aggregator NewRoo
This was the acquisition which had been speculated for a while after FIM president rather carelessly tossed out the news at an event two wee…
Industry Moves: Fox Interactive Names COO & CSO
Just internal reshuffling after the absorption of its new acquisitions: Mark Jung will become COO of Fox Interactive Media, and Jim Heckman,…
American Idol’s Online Digs and Stats
The deal cut for Fox to bring American Idol back for five seasons included unprecedented online and mobile rights for News Corp. Americanido…
News Corp., MySpace.com Respond To Safety Concerns As Some Ad Buyers Fret
Faced with widening ripples of concern about MySpace.com as a safe space for teens, the site and its owner, News Corp., are stepping up publ…
MySpace Mobile To Debut On Helio Exclusively
MySpace is going mobile, on Helio, the MVNO being launched by SK Telecom and Earthlink this spring in U.S. The “MySpace Mobile On Helio” wil…
MySpace.com Continues To Fascinate, Draw Coverage
I’m beginning to think something is being written about MySpace.com somewhere in the world at any given moment between the continued gawking…
Earnings: News Corp: New Media Barely Visible: Audio
The FY2Q06 earnings release contains precious little about Fox Interactive Media and other News Corp. new media. While News Corp.’s internet…
MySpace Launches Video Sharing Service
As mentioned by Rupert Murdoch last week, MySpace has jumped into the video sharing space and soft-launched it service, pretty much cloning…
Fifth Season Of American Idol Premieres With New Web, Mobile Deals In Place
While contestants vie for fame and recording glory on American Idol, the people responsible for making the show happen will be looking for t…
Citigroup Media Confab: MySpace To Launch Video Downloads, IM Service
Updated: read below: At the Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecom conference, Rupert Murdoch outlines some plans for MySpace and other…
@ CES: News Corp.’s Chernin Clarifies Exec Internet Roles
I wasn’t sure what to make of the announcement earlier this week that Jeremy Philips had been appointed EVP , office of the chairman, to “fo…
Are Sites And Services Making Money Off User-Generated Material Practicing Cash-sploitation?
News Corp. execs didn’t spend hundreds of millions of dollars on an idea when Fox Interactive acquired MySpace.com. They bought a community…
Analyst: Give Murdoch Benefit Of Doubt
Christopher Marangi, analyst, Gabelli & Co.: “[Rupert Murdoch] has done a land grab basically and bought some of the most valuable remaining…
@ Media Week: More From Ross Levinsohn, President, FIM
Yes, you’re reading a lot about Ross Levinsohn here this week but that’s what happens when people making news are in the spotlight at consec…
@ Media Week: Levinsohn: Social Portal; MySpace.com UK, China; “Family Guy” Originals Online; More
Work in progress: It’s SRO at the Grand Hyatt where analysts and investors are trying to gauge the actual potential of Rupert Murdoch’s $1 b…
Fox’s Plans On Content
A good interview/speech by Ross Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media…he explains the rights issues with putting video content onl…
New Fox “American Idol” Deal Has Substantial Web, Wireless Component
The settlement of a legal dispute between “American Idol” celeb Simon Cowell and series owner 19 Entertainment, owned by CKX, has paved the…
Murdoch: $2 Billion Internet Budget Still “Feels About Right” But Door Still Open
The News Corp. earnings call is still going on but worth nothing that Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch met the persistent questions about his…
News Corp-Owned MySpace Starting Music Label
As has been an open-secret over the last few months, MySpace, now owned by News Corp, is launching a music label, called MySpace Records. It…
WPP’s Sorrell Dispenses Wisdom About Internet Advertising — And Takes a Dig At Rupert Murdoch
Every so often I read a news story that makes me wish I could hear the comments in context. Take the Reuters report about WPP CEO Martin Sor…
WPP’s Sorrell: News Corp.’s Internet Buys Are “Almost Willy-Nilly,” Driven By Panic
WPP CEO Martin Sorrell should stick to advertising. His comments about media internet strategy — particularly the recent moves by News Corp…
Fox Looking To Launch A P2P Service?
Well, taken slightly out of context, but the gist is that Fox Interactive Media, the new media arm of Fox and News Corp, is looking to launc…
Rupert Murdoch: Pragmatic Internet Evangelist
Updated: Wrong link to MP3 file earlier…corrected now:
Admist the annual meeting rumblings and grumblinsg about corporate governance, News…
Fox Interactive Asks What If — And Answers With A Purchase
The latest in the News Corp acquisition spree (or at least the latest to come out): WhatIfSports.com is the latest company acquired by Fox…
Intermix Nixes Greenspan Effort ; Postpones News Corp. Deal Slightly
In a detailed SEC filing, Intermix Media lays out its reasons for turning down a last-minute proposal from Brad Greenspan, founder of Interm…
Intermix Founder Counters News Corp. Offer At Last Minute
Updated: Brad Greenspan, the disgruntled founder of Intermix Media precursor eUniverse, is leading an investor group called FreeMySpace LLC…
Intermix’s History With Greenspan
Following the counter offer from Greenspan-led group (read the post below), some history about the ugly fight between former CEO and the boa…
Ex-CEO Blasts Intermix-Fox Interactive Deal
Intermix (well, its previous incarnation eUniverse) founder Brad Greenspan continues to blast News Corp.’s planned acquisition of the compan…
Goldman Sachs: Virtual Lunch With Rupert
I need to go back to the recording for some details but here are some first impressions of News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch’s lunc…
FIM-IGN: React, More Details
Mercury News: In an interview, IGN CEO Mark Jung says the company probably will expand its 320-person staff — about half are in the Bay Are…
News Corp.-IGN: Viacom Aced Out At Last Minute?
(Staci D. Kramer) I’ve thought for a while that Viacom’s MTV Networks and IGN Entertainment would make a good fit so I wasn’t surprised to h…
What’s Next For FIM?
In terms of major buys, don’t rule out CNET as a possible acquisition for Fox Interactive but, like IGN, the price range would have to be lo…
News Corp.-IGN: Street, Analyst React
:Richard Greenfield, analyst, Fulcrum Global Partners: “The big question now centers on what exactly is News Corp.’s overarching ‘vision’ fo…
News Corp.-IGN: Details
News Corps. said no to IGN at $1 billion and again at $800 million. At that price, the company was willing to stick with the casual gaming t…
Scout Media’s Sale To Fox Interactive: $60 Million Tag
Scout Media, the online sports network which recently sold out to Fox Interactive Media/news Corp, had a sale tag of $60 million (I estimate…
Fox Interactive Building a Portal?
That’s according to some feelers and other messaging coming out from the company. Also, in its latest annual report, it has this line: “FIM…
Class-Action Suit Challenges Intermix Sale To News Corp.
The inevitable class action suit has been filed protesting the sale of Intermix — and with it MySpace.com — to the Fox Interactive unit of…
Blinkx Adds Content But News Corp. Deal Is A Mirage
According to someone familiar with News Corp.’s plans, the company was never close to a deal with Blinx.TV; the chatter was just another exa…
MySpace To Start A Record Label
MySpace, the online community site, will be starting its own record label in partnership with a major label shortly, according to the founde…
Music Video Action Shifts To Internet
This just in … the internet is replacing cable television as the primo music video viewing destination. Phil Leigh, senior analyst for Ins…
News Corp.’s Intermix Buy Gets US Antitrust OK
U.S. antitrust authorities have approved plans by News Corp/Fox Interactive Media to buy Intermix Media (parent of MySpace.com) for $580 mil…
Some Number on MySpace.com’s Ad Impressions
Some numbers to chew on: Last month, MySpace’s popularity with advertisers continued to climb. MySpace was responsible for 10.8 percent of […
Intermix’s Q2 Earnings: Some Details on Buyout By FIM
Intermix, the LA-basec company (parent of MySpace.com) which was recently sold to News Corp/Fox Interactive media for $580 million, has repo…
Talks Don’t Always Lead To Deals
I’ve been watching this morning’s LA Times article about talks between Blinkx and Fox Interactive Media ping around the net and it’s time fo…
Report: FIM In Talks With Blinkx.tv
(reg. req.) Fox Interactive Media is in negotiations to buy privately held multimedia search company Blinkx, according to the LA Times’ Sall…
More On News Corp.’ s Search For Search
News Corp.: Two entries that probably should have been on our original list — Miva, which includes FindWhat.com, and closed slightly down o…
MySpace Founder Tries To Ease Suspicious Minds
Among the biggest questionmarks around Fox Interactive’s pending $580 million acquisition of Intermix and its top property MySpace are wheth…
Earnings: Murdoch Uses Call To Highlight FIM; Says Unit Will Redefine Internet Portal, Go Deep Local
The News Corp. earnings call, which is still going on, included a lengthy description by Chairman & CEO Rupert Murdoch of Fox Interactive Me…
Earnings: News Corp. Beats Street With 67-Percent Profit Hike In FY4Q05; Amends Deal With COO Cherni
First look … News Corp. exceeded the Street’s expectations for FY4Q05, turning in $717 million in net income — 22 cents a share compared…
Fox Interactive: Acquisition (Speculation) Magnet
Rupert Murdoch might as well have painted a bullseye on News Corp.’s wallet with the one-two formation of Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and ac…
Fox Interactive Acquires Sports Operator Scout Media
Updated: Some basic assumptions, and the sale price is probably in $50 million range. For an expected $17-million-in revenues-this-year-comp…
Murdoch’s Tangled Web?
Emily Bell, the editor-in-chief of Guardian Online, writes a piece on Rupert’ Murdoch’s “renewed interest” in online, and how MySpace acquis…
Interview, Part II: Ross Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive Media — Portals, Timing, Inside Mov
: Read the press release announcing Fox Interactive Media and you might think the mission includes setting up a competitor to MSN, Yahoo, AO…
Fox-MySpace Deal: Our Full Coverage
No one covers it like we do, really:
— Fox Interactive Makes Big Splash — Buys Intermix and MySpace For $580 Million, Nearly Doubles U.S.…
News Corp.-Intermix: Murdoch, Chernin Explain; Others React
The one-two punch of establishing Fox Interactive Media and MySpace/Intermix set off a near-avalanche of coverage from analysts and media. A…
Industry Moves: Fox Interactive Hires Grey Away From Yahoo
We hear Fox Interactive Media has snared Yahoo Sports GM Brian Grey as the new unit’s first major outside hire. It’s a step up in rank for G…
FIM-MySpace’s Effect on Social Media M&As
Well, if you ask me, somewhere Reid Hoffman is smiling…he knows he’s next. Anyway, for more candidates in the social media space, you migh…
News Corp. – Intermix: VC Payday
Bill Burnham picks up on VCs victorious in a detailed look at the financing of MySpace and Intermix or, as he puts it, “A VC Social Networki…
News Corp.-Intermix: Reaction Is Fairly Positive
:Jessica Reif Cohen, Merrill Lynch: “This acquisition is a major step for News Corp as it attempts to improve its competitive positioning in…
News Corp.-Intermix Details: Interview, Ross Levinsohn, President, FIM
If you want to show you mean action, spending $580 million can get the message across. But News Corp. could have spent a lot more and accomplished a lot less.
Reaction To Intermix-MySpace Acquisition
Some analyst/media reaction to Intermix(MySpace) acquisition by Fox Interactive Media:
— Bambi Francisco: If next-generation media is about…
Fox Buys Intermix: Some Background on MySpace
Some background on MySpace, arguably the hottest property online these days, in light of its parent’s buyout by Fox Interactive Media (see b…
Fox Interactive Makes Big Splash — Buys Intermix and MySpace For $580 Million, Nearly Doubles U.S.
We’ll have more details for you in a bit but Fox Interactive Media has made its first acquisition — at least the first public one — and it…
Interview, Part 1: Ross Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive Media
We’ve known for months that News Corps. was creating a new internet strategy. Earlier this year, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch…
News Corp. Establishes New Internet Unit: Fox Interactive Media
Fox Interactive Media, or FIM, will manage all interactive content from every Fox division including foxsports.com, foxnews.com and fox.com,…
Industry Moves: Levinsohn To Head New Fox Interactive Media
News Corp. continues to put its newest internet strategy in place. This time, it’s the creation of Fox Interactive Media, a new unit that wi…
