News Corp.

MySpace to Acquire imeem Music Streaming Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 9:29am.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace has agreed to acquire streaming music service imeem for an undisclosed sum, although sources told CNET News.com that the deal is valued at about $8 million. The deal reportedly includes a payment of $1 million in cash, as well as earn outs and accounts receivable.

Report: MySpace in Talks to Acquire Music Streamer imeem

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 17, 2009 - 8:23am.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace online social network is in "late stage negotiations" to acquire the music streaming service imeem, TechCrunch reported, citing multiple unnamed sources. Founded in 2003, San Francisco-based imeem started off as a music-focused social network application, but later shifted focus to concentrate on music streaming.

Wall Street Journal Counts 30,000 Kindle Subscribers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 12:00pm.
New York - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) The Wall Street Journal currently counts around 30,000 subscribers via Amazon's (NASD: AMZN) Kindle e-book reader, PaidContent reported, citing comments made by Down Jones head Les Hinton on Thursday. With a subscription fee of $15 per month, that translates to about $5.4 million in annual revenues -- although PaidContent notes that Dow Jones's cut would be less than half that figure.

MySpace Debuts Music Charts

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2009 - 11:54am.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace on Thursday introduced its own MySpace Music Charts, which will provide data on the most popular music amongst MySpace Music users. The charts will run across all genres, and include real-time data on current trends.

Report: News Corp. to Block Google News "Within Months"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 13, 2009 - 9:52am.
London - Days after News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) chairman Rupert Murdoch said he plans to block stories from his stable of newspapers from appearing in Google's news index, the company's chief digital officer, Jonathan Miller, echoed the position and said the move would come in "months and quarters -- not weeks," the Telegraph reported. "The traffic which comes in from Google brings a consumer who more often than not read one article and then leaves the site. That is the least valuable of traffic to us... the economic impact [of not having content indexed by Google] is not as great as you might think. You can survive without it," Miller said at the Monaco Media Forum, according to the Telegraph's coverage.

News Corp. Mulls Google News Exit for WSJ, Other Papers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 9, 2009 - 10:09am.
New York - News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) chairman Rupert Murdoch is considering blocking newspaper content from The Wall Street Journal and his company's other papers from appearing in Google's (NASD: GOOG) news index, The Guardian reported, citing an interview with Sky News Australia. Murdoch added that such a move wouldn't happen until his plan to begin charging users for access to more of News Corp.'s newspaper content online moves forward.

Drop in MySpace Traffic to Cut $100M Off Google Ad Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 5, 2009 - 1:00pm.
New York - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace may lose out on at least $100 million of the $900 million it was contracted to receive from a search advertising agreement with Google (NASD: GOOG), due to lackluster traffic to the website, the Financial Times reported.

Hulu Provides Schedule of Upcoming TV Episode Releases

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 3, 2009 - 10:31am.
Los Angeles - Hulu, the online video joint venture between News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and Disney (NYSE: DIS), has launched a new feature that will let users know when new episodes of TV shows are scheduled to become available on the site. The new Coming Soon feature will offer a weekly schedule of when shows from ABC, NBC ad Fox are slated to go live on Hulu after their broadcast premieres.

Report: Comcast Closer to NBC Universal Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 2, 2009 - 7:50am.
New York - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) is closer to a deal with General Electric (NYSE: GE) to take over control of its NBC Universal unit, after meetings last week concluded with a tentative agreement on the main points, The New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the talks. Under the proposed deal, Comcast would contribute "several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks," and receive a 51% stake of NBC Universal.

Paramount Debuts "Circle of Eight" Series on MySpace

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 12:14pm.
Los Angeles - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) Paramount Digital Entertainment on Tuesday announced the exclusive premiere on MySpace (NYSE: NWS) of its original supernatural thriller webisode series, "Circle of Eight." Produce in association with Mountain Dew's Green Label Studios, the 10-part series combines elements of gaming and social media to propel the story. Following the end of its exclusive run on MySpace in December, the series will be made available for rent from Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI).

Report: MySpace, Facebook in Talks on Content Sharing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 26, 2009 - 12:00pm.
London - As News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace looks to rebrand itself as more of a social entertainment destination, the company is in negotiations with rival Facebook on sharing content between the two sites, London's Telegraph reports. "Facebook is focusing on building the best technology which helps people share content, while at MySpace they are focusing on more a content-led strategy. We would like to have their content, as we already do with many other sites, shared across our network because it is good for our users," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told the Telegraph.

News Corp. Exec: Hulu to Start Charging for Access

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 11:51am.
New York - Hulu, the online video joint venture between News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and Disney (NYSE: DIS), plans to begin charging users for some content, possibly as early as next year, according to remarks from News Corp. president and COO Chase Carey, the Associated Press reported.

MySpace Integrates Meez Virtual World for Teens

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 10:55am.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace has signed a deal with teen-focused virtual world Meez, to integrate the Java-based 3D environment into its own website. A large number of Meez' 13 million teenaged, predominantly female members are active MySpace users, according to the company. The integration will allow Meez users to import their 3D avatars, and play online games and congregate in a MySpace-based version of the virtual world. It will also allow Meez users to purchase virtual goods with the company's Coinz virtual currency.

Fox Creates New Digital Studio Group

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 19, 2009 - 12:01pm.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s Fox Filmed Entertainment has announced the creation of a new digital arm, Fox Digital Studios, which will focus on development, production and distribution of original and derivative programming for release on digital platforms. The unit will be headed by David Worthen Brooks, formerly the executive creative director at Fox Atomic.

TechCrunch: News Corp. Selling Photobucket for $60 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 19, 2009 - 8:58am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) digital media unit is close to unloading its Photobucket photo-sharing site to Ontela, a Seattle-based mobile photo-sharing service, in a deal that values Photobucket at $60 million, TechCrunch reported, citing unnamed sources.

WSJ to Supplant USA Today as Nation's Top-Selling Newspaper

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 14, 2009 - 9:30am.
Arlington, Va. - USA Today no longer is the nation's top-selling newspaper, according to newly released reports.

MySpace Music Launches in Australia, New Zealand

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 1, 2009 - 10:51am.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace on Thursday announced the launch of its MySpace Music service in Australia and New Zealand, the first territories outside of the U.S. to offer the service. The joint venture between MySpace and the four major record labels will offer links to purchase tracks from Apple's iTunes Store. The ad-supported platform launches with Australian sponsors Toyota and KFC.

Fox Interactive Media Renamed News Corp. Digital Media

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 30, 2009 - 11:01am.
Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox Interactive Media, the unit that includes properties such as MySpace, IGN and Photobucket, has been renamed News Corp. Digital Media. The group also announced a number of management changes, with Dan Fawcett named general counsel and EVP of business affairs; Jack Kennedy named EVP of operations; Jorge Espinel named EVP of strategy and corporate development; and Hemanshu Nigam named SVP of safety, security and privacy. The group also said that Roy Bahat was promoted to president of IGN Entertainment.

MySpace Status Updates Generating Traffic on Twitter

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 28, 2009 - 9:21am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - A week after News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace launched a feature that lets members sync their MySpace status updates with their Twitter accounts, MySpace lnk.ms shortened links have become the second-largest source of that brand of traffic, TechCrunch reported, citing Techmeme data. MySpace links now account for 17% of all passed links on Twitter. Bit.ly claims 68%, while TinyURL accounts for 10.13% of passed links.