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Rupert Murdoch invades MySpace

Rupert Murdoch is acquiring Intermix Media, Inc., which operates MySpace.com, for $580 million in cash, dragging the social network site into his media empire (which includes everybody's favorite "fair and balanced" news network, Fox News. The UK's Guardian Unlimited has a pretty good assessment of Murdoch's attempt to embrace "the internet and the peer-to-peer communications which power its current growth."

There is something of a backside-covering operation here with the purchase of internet advertising growth via the Intermix websites as well as an acquisition of a new skill set. But herein lies the problem. All of the truly successful web businesses which Murdoch seeks to emulate - at least in terms of revenues and reach - Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, MSN - do not have pioneering vision bolted on to them but embedded in the heart of their corporate culture. The mess of AOL and Time Warner has proved one thing - that integrating online and offline can take a decade, millions of dollars, and still leave you with two distinct businesses that have barely budged an inch.

A self-confessed "digital immigrant", Rupert Murdoch might have finally run into a boundary which he cannot transcend. His vision for News Corp on the web, which in America means Fox Interactive Media, has undertones of portals and keeping your audience tied in - something which is a long way behind the latest curve, where content flies freely across whichever platform the users choose. To be successful on the web takes more than acquisitive power - like all other media it takes total commitment and concentration from the very top of the company and a culture steeped in its progression. Murdoch should note the reverse takeover going on at the BBC where its online business is moving from the periphery to the core of all its activities.

jon posted this at 8:11 AM
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