Rupert Murdoch Doesn’t Have a MySpace Profile*

By Dylan on April 24, 2006 12:05 PM

* Although it appears he’s got plenty of people willing to make one for him.

We just finished reading the 3,100-word profile of the Rupert Murdoch-owned MySpace in the Sunday Times, and we’d like to highlight a few nuggets:

Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive which includes MySpace.com, hopes to expand its business by “turning advertisers into members of the MySpace community, with their own profiles, like the teenagers’ — so that the young people who often spend hours each day on MySpace can become ‘friends’ with movies, cellphone companies and even deodorants.” But, don’t “savvy” marketers do that already?

Page Six, the Portal: “The News Corporation is also developing a portal devoted to entertainment, drawing from its Fox network programs, the Page Six gossip column of The New York Post and show-business reporters at the 35 local television stations it owns, Mr. Levinsohn said.” Sort of a Super E! on the Web?

Levinsohn vs. DeWolfe: “Mr. Levinsohn, for example, said he saw opportunity in the one million bands that have established profiles on MySpace; he said MySpace could charge bands to promote concerts or to sell their songs directly through the site. In an interview the next day, however, Mr. DeWolfe dismissed the idea. ‘Music brings a lot of traffic into MySpace and it lets us sell very large sponsorships to those brands that want to reach consumers who are interested in music. We never thought charging bands was a viable business model.’”

Murdoch’s ‘Down’ With the Kids: “For now, Mr. DeWolfe and Mr. Anderson say they are happy working for the News Corporation and Mr. Murdoch, its 75-year-old chairman and chief executive. ‘Rupert Murdoch blew me away,’ Mr. DeWolfe said. ‘He really understands what youth is doing today.’” Perhaps, but a quick search of MySpace for “Murdoch” or “Rupert” turns up plenty of profiles, none too real.

For MySpace, Making Friends Was Easy. Big Profit Is Tougher. [NYT]