Yesterday, Fox Business Network interviewed an "online shopper" named Peter Perweiler who turned out to be the marketing director for the National Retail Federation. The NRF says it organized a media event so reporters could interview "real" shoppers. Silicon Alley Insider got one explanation from the NRF. We got another, very different explanation, from Fox News.
Though the timing of Digg's deal with the Wall Street Journal was coincidental, we're told, it has sparked a new wave of whispers that News Corp. might be taking another look at the headline-voting site. We've heard a very specific number bruited about: News Corp., rumor has it, would pay $340 million to buy Digg. And there's a new angle to a potential deal: At the same time, News Corp. would take a stake in Revision3, the online-video startup which shares founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson with Digg.
Rupert Murdoch, in the gluttonous spirit of Thanksgiving, is looking to acquire Linkedin. The business-focused networking site would match well with The Wall Street Journal and offer an online venue for classifieds ads. And it'd be a way for News Corp. to court those in the businessman demographic who aren't too keen on MySpace. Linkedin chairman Reid Hoffman responded to TechCrunch to say he's "entertained" by the rumors, but won't comment on their validity.
Notoriously media-shy internet person Matt Drudge flew over to England to appear on News Corp's SkyNews (sans hat!). And in a rare TV interview, he slobbered all over Rupert Murdoch's newspapers and talked about how his unchanged-since-1997 news clearinghouse is the future of information dispersal. The interviewer did ask him an unexpected question about just who shares Matt's bed, but he declined to answer.
The Man Behind the Drudge Report Revaled [SkyNews via Soup Cans]
MySpace has strong ties to musicians, with bands favoring the social network to host fan sites. But the News Corp. subsidiary has yet to figure out a way to profit off their music. The independent music store idea flamed out as partner Snocap laid off 60 percent of its employees in early October. So what's MySpace going to try next? Giving music away free, supported by ads, Adweek reports.
You heard about Abu Dubai snapping up 8.1 percent of AMD? Well, FBN anchor Alexis Glick read the tape wrong as the news came across the wire and announced Apple invested in the chipmaker. This led to a good three minutes of hjinx as contributor Charles Payne analyzed the news. When Glick tried to correct herself, it just got worse. SAI transcribed the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:
"The lawsuit by former book publisher Judith Regan against News Corporation, parent company of "fair and balanced" Fox News, has a certain similarity to the Iran-Iraq war: it's hard to work up a rooting interest in either side," writes Richard Aregood in today's Guardian, but he then goes on treat her claim that her firing was motivated by a conspiracy to effect a Giuliani White House more seriously than most have. And then there's this zinger: "In discussions over an anti-Regan article in the New York Post that Regan says was totally fictional, her complaint alleges that the [News Corp] lawyers acknowledged that the article in question was per se defamatory, but they offered her a dubious reassurance: "No one believes what they read in the New York Post."
We might scoff at News Corp. and NBC's claims that their joint video project, Hulu, is capable of taking down YouTube, but the site isn't above stealing a page from Google's playbook. Alongside its own hosted video, Hulu's search database will cull links to rival networks' shows — particularly those hosted on Hulu distribution partners like AOL. Hulu might never become a one-stop video destination like YouTube, but it's positioning itself as a rival to Google in video search.
"What would happen if a Web site's readers — instead of editors — could decide which stories should be published?" The Wall Street Journal posed that question nearly two years ago, in an article about Digg, the social-news website. Now, the Journal's editors are letting Digg users make those decisions for them. Articles on WSJ.com will carry Digg buttons, says Digg founder Kevin Rose in a blog post. When users "digg," or vote for, the stories, they won't require a subscription to read. Since it's easy to submit articles to Digg, this makes the entire website essentially free — or at least the stories Digg users care about. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, the Journal's new owner, has been making noises about dropping the website's subscription barrier. This deal with Digg pretty much tears down the paywall for him.
From the mailbag: "at Milberg Weiss, Judith Regan has just filed a defamation lawsuit against Harper Collins, NewsCorp. and Jane Friedman." Looks like Judith is making good on the promise she made back in January, getting it in under the wire before the statute of limitations ran out. Brace for crazy!
Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. unit which includes MySpace, IGN, and Photobucket, is planning to launch an online-ad network. Besides FIM websites, prospective customers include other News Corp. properties like the New York Post, and, possibly, the Wall Street Journal. [Silicon Alley Insider]
"The two platforms are very different in the user experience ... MySpace pages become a home on the Internet, it's where they discover people, content and culture ... Facebook, on the other hand, tends to be a Web utility, similar to a phone." — News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch on the differences between his MySpace and competitor Facebook. [Sydney Morning Herald]
A bunch of "experts" and white men are trashing Rupert Murdoch's all-knowing decision to add Natalie Bancroft to the board of Murdoch's News Corp. The 27-year-old non-performing opera singer and member of the Bancroft family, which happily tossed the Wall Street Journal to the Aussie tabloid terror and now would like to Monday morning quarterback everything, is described as probably being the gal who will plan the Christmas party. Let me ask the old white men this: Have you ever been to that poker game? The one where the new girl arrives in the slightly-inappropriate dress and is all "Um, oh my God, what is 'Texas Hold 'Em'?" And then she leaves with everyone's money and a couple phone numbers? We know Natalie Bancroft is that girl. From board meeting number one, she has the greatest advantage on her side: She is not encumbered by a penis, that poisonous organ that makes people stupid.
Rupert Murdoch has added a 27-year-old European opera singer to the News Corp. board of directors. Natalie Bancroft, of the Bancroft family which sold Dow Jones to News Corp., was was offered the position as part of acquisition negotiations. One Dow Jones employee said, "It validates the family's incompetence." Ouch. Natalie has, as best as we can tell, zero experience running a business. An interesting choice for Rupert — we wonder what kind of influence, if any, Natalie will have on News Corp. Other board members include Murdoch's eldest son Lachlan, News Corp. COO and president Peter Chernin and a former prime minister of Spain. [FT]
Let's come out and say it: Facebook wants to be MySpace. And MySpace wants to be Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg's social network has the buzz, the tech, and the runaway growth rate, while MySpace has more users, more revenues, and the backing of News Corp. But the mutual envy became really clear to me when Facebook announced its new advertising plan, which lets corporations place spam unsolicited commercial messages in users' news feeds. Why, that's been the basis of MySpace since 2002. MySpace is a spam operation that became a social network. And now Facebook is a social network that's turning into a spam operation.
The poor Bancroft family, former owners of the Wall Street Journal, have bent themselves entirely over new WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch's lap. They've spent the last two months trying to put a representative on the board—but blew a deadline and ensured that Murdoch got to choose for them. (Bitter but true: Rupert wanted "the appearance of the support a Bancroft Family member," according to Christopher Bancroft, not "a 'seasoned champion of journalistic values' from the world of journalism." Plus! "Our family's concerns about journalistic integrity are clearly indicated by our willingness to sell Dow Jones to News Corp." Youch!) And now the family is torn apart because 27-year-old Natalie Bancroft, described dismissively as "a 27-year-old opera singer living in Europe," will sit on the News Corp. board. But?
In the current contract, writers only get paid when viewers actually buy the content online, like from iTunes, for example. Problem is, the broadcast networks aren't exactly enamored with the online-retail model. Just ask NBC CEO Jeff Zucker. The broadcast business has always been ad-supported, which is why NBC and News Corp are comfortable with Hulu and the Disney-ABC Television Group signed a deal with AOL Video. And naturally, writers want a cut of the ad dollars, too.
At $2.7 million per 30-second spot, TV advertising is far from dead, or in need of help from Google. In fact, Fox is likely to bring in more than $160 million in ad revenues during the Super Bowl. That's more than Facebook is projected to make this entire year. AdAge reports that 90 percent of the 30-second ad slots for Super Bowl XLII are sold out. Normally, a few spots are still available for gullible dotcoms at the runup to the event, but not this year. Demand from automakers and movie studios has driven the buying spree. This year, Fox is showing the Super Bowl in the U.S. and is doing extensive cross-promotion with fellow News Corp. subsidiary MySpace. On-air promotions will "urge" viewers to log onto MySpace, and advertisers will tie special offers to users who also view the ads online.
Newsweek confirms the earlier reports that MySpace founder Tom Anderson is lying about his age ... on MySpace. He'll turn 37 in two weeks, not the 33 that his profile suggests. Newsweek quotes one MySpace user: "Tom was my first friend. It's kind of messed up that he lied to me." Wait until someone tells him about all those "girls" who added him as a friend. [Newsweek]
Despite some all-night conference calls prior to launch, online-video site Hulu did not collapse prior to opening its doors for business. But keep refreshing. Despite pleasant early reviews of the sites service — people are variously describing its service as "really slick" and "very nice" — NBC and News Corp.'s joint venture is in trouble. Why?
