Is there any way to save the sinking ship myspace.com?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101103/tc_afp/usitcompanyinternetnewscorpmyspace
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101103/tc_afp/usitcompanyinternetnewscorpmyspaceNews Corp. puts Myspace on notice
Wed Nov 3, 7:34 pm ET
NEW YORK (AFP) Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. put Myspace on notice on Wednesday, saying the losses at the ailing social network were unsustainable and there needs to be improvement in the next few quarters.
"We've been clear that Myspace is a problem," News Corp. president and chief operating officer Chase Carey said during a conference call with analysts after the media and entertainment giant released its quarterly earnings.
"The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable," Carey said. "Our current management did not create these losses but they know we have to address them."
The News Corp. executive said last week's redesign of Myspace "has been generally well received by the opinionmakers in the business but we recognize the critical issue is building interest with consumers.
"We also recognize the challenges we face in doing so," he said.
News Corp. bought Myspace for 580 million dollars in 2005 but it has been eclipsed by Facebook in recent years, which has grown to more than 500 million members while Myspace's numbers have dwindled.
With tens of millions of users, Carey said Myspace still "has the potential to be an exciting business for us" but "we need to make real headway in the coming quarters to get this business to a sustainable level."
"Our traffic numbers are still not going in the right direction and we have to stabilize that and have a predictable path forward, the right cost structure and a clear path to be a profitable business," he said.
Asked how much time News Corp. would give Myspace to show improvement, Carey declined to give a deadline.
"These are fluid businesses... I think it is something we look to judge in quarters not in years," he said.
Aside from Myspace, rebounding advertising helped News Corp. report a solid quarter with net profit growing 36 percent to 775 million dollars, beating the expectations of Wall Street analysts.
Revenue rose to 7.4 billion dollars in the first quarter of its 2011 fiscal year from 7.2 billion dollars a year ago.
"Our global cable network programming business continues to lead News Corporation's financial and operational momentum," Murdoch, News Corp.'s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
"With continued subscriber growth in new and established channels throughout the world, and a global advertising recovery, our domestic and international channels now account for 25 percent of our revenues," he added.
"Our publishing segment also showed expanded operating income, benefiting from greater advertising revenue and operational efficiencies at our newspapers."
News Corp.'s publishing empire includes The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Britain's The Times and The Sunday Times and newspapers in Australia.
Other News Corp. properties include the Fox Broadcasting Co., 20th Century Fox movie studio, Dow Jones and Sky Italia.
Earlier Wednesday, News Corp. notified European Commission competition regulators of its takeover plans for British pay-TV giant BSkyB.
News Corp. shares were up 3.10 percent to 15.30 dollars in after-hours trading.
1st Myspace, then Facebook
one can hope...
Welcome to anandtech Mr. Zuckerberg.Nah, Facebook will stick around. Twitter is just status updates, so i dont see that taking over from facebook anytime soon. Apps in the facebook world helped make it what it is today
Myspace failed by giving users too much control over their profile pages. It made browsing Myspace like browsing the internet in 1995. Tacky wallpapers, annoying music, unreadable fonts, etc. Facebook's initial advantage was the consistency of its layout.
I quadruple this
What is taking facebook down?
1st Myspace, then Facebook
one can hope...
Time defeats all stupid social networking sites. Which is every one of them.
Give one single logical reasonable explanation why networking sites are stupid and should go down? Your hatred is completely ridiculous. You are a bandwagon hater. Think for yourself for once.
No bandwagon hater here, I've been hating social networking since sixdegree. If anything I started the bandwagon. I think for myself
Then you have absolutely no reason to hate them? Just a grinch for kicks?
Then you have absolutely no reason to hate them? Just a grinch for kicks?
Originally Posted by MikeMike
to bad, so sad.
here's a very condensed version, I'll use FB as my example. Not a day goes by where I don't get bombarded with "what's your FB info?" "I don't have a FB sorry..."
and they go into a Christian cult like speech about how my life is utter shit without FB and a run down of what I'm missing out on. I get tired of it. And a few have continued to sell me on why I need a FB every time they see me for a damn month.
Another fail by News Corp? I think so! :awe: