All Hail Lord Murdoch Of The Internet
from the easy-tiger dept
Newsweek is hailing Rupert Murdoch as “a leader in digital media after some smart bets” — while undoubtedly News Corporation’s size and sway make it somebody to pay attention to in the space, just because they can throw some money around doesn’t make them a company to follow. Keep in mind that most of the media hype didn’t think Murdoch “got” the internet until his company dropped $580 million on MySpace little more than six months ago, and his strategy since then has been less than convincing. There’s little in the magazine’s interview to suggest Murdoch’s much of a visionary: basically, they’re going to put targeted ads on MySpace (that was a tough one), and he thinks video to mobile phones is more important than downloads to computers or the iPod, inferring that the company’s one-minute “mobisodes” of the show 24 are the way to go. Apparently he’s been so busy “getting” the internet that he missed the news that Fox yanked the 24 mobisodes because they were so unpopular. Also, weren’t video downloads from MySpace a cornerstone of his strategy for the site? Murdoch and News Corp. may be throwing money around on acquisitions, but that’s about it. To call those acquisitions smart, or to paint him as some sort of internet-media visionary, is awfully premature.
Comments on “All Hail Lord Murdoch Of The Internet”
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word
Oh no.
You brought up myspace. Here come the haters.
Can’t people accept that sites they hate may have a legitimate purpose? For instance, connecting people who have lost contact?
Before anyone says that never happens, I’ve managed to find a few people I thought I’d never talk to again because they have a myspace account.
Re: Oh no.
No one said myspace was inneffective at doing what it claims to do..but it certainly isn’t doing anything revolutionary that hasn’t been done before and better. The point of the post is that Murdoch is being hailed as some internet genius when he is really just a savvy bussiness man doing what one would expect one to do in regards to myspace and other products. Nothing special, same old same old and a couple failures here and there. I enjoy myspace and have have all sorts of freinds there, but it really isn’t anything special or new, it’s just very popular.
Re: Oh no.
I know of people who have found old friends due to Myspace, as much as I hate it, it does happen…
All he did and all that myspace is...
All he did was go and buy up a business that is apparently popular with “them youngin’s” (fars the business world is concerned – btw: I’m in the agegroup, but somehow I was smart enough to not jump on the myspace bandwagon)
and all that myspace is, is another crappy free hosting service that made itself popular because it’s a fad. I’ll bet you all of the myspace ceo’s money that 98 to 99 percent of all sites on their network are subpar pos design-wise even compared to half the geocities sites (and thats sayin something)
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Spending $500M+ on a free web hosting outfit is not business savvy
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lol Carolo isnt saying myspace isnt connection people but to say hes a revolutionary or whatever is just retarded.
what else was he gonna do with myspace? duh, what myspace was already doing. its like saying TW is the new media king, bow down because on their AIM (that has been around lloooonnggg before myspace) *gasps* they’ve been putting their movie advertisments. OMG! ingenious? or duh
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GAYspace
Oh come on
What? You mean he didn’t purchase MySpace to own all the images of those underage girls who think they’re being sexy by showing clevage? “HoSpace”
No hating here, I have an account *shrugs*
Re: Oh come on
I can’t complain about myspace, well aside from the fact that it’s glitchy as all Hell, and for what it is? Eh… But it has put me in contact with people I haven’t seen in nearly 10 years, so props on that! As far as Murdoch goes… His spin factory must be making him out to be this “visionary” because anyone with half a brain knows he’s not (in regards to the Internet anyway).
The Way of the Dinosaur
Cell Phones are not iPods, when I download something, it costs me per byte, and if you think I’m going to download a movie clip so I can pretend I’m Stuey you’ve got another thing coming. However give me a 50G hard drive with a screen I can take on a plane/car/boat/UFO ride I may say to myself, “that looks something like a product.” What Murdoch is doing is catering to the un-intelligentsia, If you think you’re Dave Chappelle or know someone who does then you know what I’m talking about. MySpace and cellphone downloads are going the way of the dinosaur for two reasons.
A) People who use MySpace are graduating Middle and High school every year, I figure you’ve got about 5 years of sizeable traffic left at that site.
B) Cell Phones are pieces of junk and until people want to pay for the expensive flash drives that can hold ring tones, numbers, softcore from MySpace downloads, AND those crappy mobisodes along with some Kevlar plating for when they drop the pieces of crap I think Murdoch is gonna have a hard time turning a profit.