by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
The time has come for big changes at MySpace, according to Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield.
In a research note this morning, Greenfield asserts that, with just over a year to go on the News Corp. unit’s search advertising deal with Google, “it appears as though Google simply does not care about social search.” He contends it is difficult to imagine Google paying anywhere near what they were previously shelling out to MySpace, “especially as the inherent functionality of social networks is diminishing the importance of search.” The current deal expires in June 2010.
News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media digital division is laying off about five percent of its workforce, or about 100 people, amid continued cost-cutting efforts, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The cuts, which started in the last month, are happening gradually unit by unit, the person said. The layoffs include all groups, from social-networking site MySpace to photo-sharing site Photobucket to mobile.
by Peter Kafka, Managing Editor, Silicon Alley Insider
News Corp. execs did more than just admit that they weren’t going to hit their revenue goals for MySpace and Fox Interactive Media today. They also fessed up to another open secret: Selling ads on social networks is really difficult. How difficult? Consider that even while MySpace and all of the other FIM sites continued to grow, FIM revenues dropped from $233 million in Q2 to $210 million in Q3; about a third of that total came from a three-year guaranteed deal from Google.
Recently, Nielsen/NetRatings revised the way it ranked top Web sites to include “time spent” in its ranking algorithm. I very much applaud this change, because it’s an extra level of information that will be circulated freely to give people additional ways to consider the rankings.
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