paidContent - Murdoch: 'I Blame Myself' For MySpace Mess
This story was written by Staci D. Kramer.
Missed this during my travels—Rupert Murdoch admitting to fault for the way MySpace morphed into an overgrown company in need of a massive trim. The News Corp (NYSE: NWS) chairman and CEO told TheStreet.com he hasn’t given up on global ambitions for the social network: “We’re just getting first things right first. The business sort of grew out of control and really out of size. I blame myself and it had to be brought back in size.”
Murdoch waved off comparisons to other sites, promising “a very strong force” that will be very different from “say, Facebook,” which he views as more of a directory. Facebook is to meet people; MySpace is to share common interests.
—Micropayments: A News Corp taskforce is looking into online payments, including micropayments, but Murdoch doesn’t sound as enthused as some of his lieutenants: “We’re still thinking our way through this and there will be micropayments as part of it, but I’m thinking much more along the lines of subscriptions like The Wall Street Journal does.”
—Aggregators: Murdoch and his execs have been pretty vocal about Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and company lately and he promises more. “... We’ll be more outspoken on the whole issue of payment for copyright material and that goes to every aggregator, whether it be Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) or Google or Ask.com or anything. ... I mean, there are billions of dollars spent, probably every month, but certainly every year in the collection and the creation of copyright by organizations and they cannot do that and have that material which they own stolen from them or the business will be destroyed.”
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By Staci D. Kramer