"He gave me this office, right next door, so it must be good. If he throws me out, I guess it's not so good." Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes' on his relationship with News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch. Come Monday, when the Fox Business Channel launches, Ailes may want to consider telecommuting. [WSJ]
"YouTube could do a much more aggressive job about taking down content that is a copyright violator... It's pretty safe to say that [Google has] the technology available... it's publicly available and I haven't yet heard a lot about Google being technologically constrained." — News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin [FT]
Could Google hit $2,000 a share? Henry Blodget thinks so, but I'm not so sure. That would value GOOG at $750 billion — roughly the same as Microsoft ($279 billion), General Electric ($431 billion), and News Corp. ($70 billion) added together. And that's assuming that none of those companies grow at all — a highly unlikely proposition. Could Google be the first company worth a trillion dollars? Maybe, but I'm not placing any bets in the "first-to-a-trillion" Valleywag office pool. Remember how well predictions of a trillion-dollar market cap worked out for AOL Time Warner? (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)
According to Jobacle, a career advice website that may or may not be real, there once was an apartment in the News Corp. building at 1211 Sixth Avenue , hidden behind a utility closet door. It was set up by a senior Fox News Channel executive for a a "building manager-type." This guy would take ladies back to this pad and do with them what he would. After a couple complaints, the apartment was quickly dismantled and turned into an office. A really terrible office.
Rupert Murdoch appeared at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference yesterday (uh, WTF, Goldman Sachs, was Communapalooza taken?) and strongly hinted that he was going to take the Wall Street Journal's website free. He also outlined the ways in which News Corp. would use the paper to bolster its new Fox Business Channel.
There's nothing quite like having your online profile mined for fun and profit. MySpace has revealed details of its new targeted advertising ploy to the New York Times. Not only does the system troll for overt clues like occupation, but it also analyzes the kind of music you listen to, the movies you watch, and who you'd most like to meet. From this data it can determine whether you're into indie rap, zombie movies, or have a thing for Samuel Jackson — and pelt you with advertisements accordingly. The system can even be used to target regional fan of a particular music genre for concert tours. "We are blessed with a phenomenal amount of information about the likes, dislikes and life's passions of our users," says Fox Interactive Media president Peter Levinsohn. Blessed. Thank goodness the Web's denizens are so free with their personal information — it's considered "digital gold." These targeted ads are projected tol boost MySpace's monthly revenue by $30 million. Maybe it will finally have enough free cash to fix the damn site.
Quincy Smith, head of CBS's online business, on competing networks News Corp. and NBC's online video play Hulu: "I love everything about the joint venture and the notion of syndicating content with distribution partners that are already proven in the business, both in the video-destination and the widget business. But why—why still hold on to a destination [Web site]? That's a huge amount of infrastructure, that's a huge part of investment and frankly, a huge distraction." [Forbes]
TechCrunch posts a rumor that NBC and News Corp. joint online video venture, recently dubbed Hulu, has purchased a little known company based in China called Mojiti to power its video platform. If true, it's just the latest sign that the oft-delayed Hulu doesn't stand a chance of competing with popular video destination site YouTube. Silicon Alley Insider thinks it's better to buy than build, but Hulu went the entire summer without a name or any details rather than delivering on a promised launch. When Hulu finally did announce its name, an October beta was mentioned. Mojiti is primarily a video annotation service, an interesting but minor addition to what is currently nonexistent. Purchasing a little-known, eight man operation out of China with a niche focus for an alleged $10 million at the eleventh hour to power a delayed and highly-criticized video platform is anything but a good move.
If it's not a feud, it's a very strange friendship. News Corp. president Peter Chernin says, "We're the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple." He's speaking, of course, of the massive Fox library of TV shows and movies his company controls, and Apple's penchant for uniform pricing for video downloads. A translation of Chernin's comments: "We're staying put for now, but watch your a**, Steve Jobs." While Apple has sold 1 million iPhones and over 100 million iPods, its storefront is replaceable (Amazon Unbox, Microsoft's Xbox 360 Marketplace, Joost, etc.). Content partners like NBC are not. Apple best do what it can to quell this proletariat uprising before things get out of hand. What exactly would Apple do for its video iPods and iPhones if studios went on "strike?" Probably let users contentedly fill their devices with pirated BitTorrent downloads.
MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe may not be your friend (that's the other co-founder, Tom Anderson), but he does hold a few powerful people near-and-dear. Including, Portfolio reports, Wendi Deng, the wife of News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch. Portfolio surmises that DeWolfe's friendship with Deng might help convince her husband to meet DeWolfe and Anderson's $50M compensation demand to stick around for another year. We think that DeWolfe has the wrong target in mind. While it might be easier for him to spend time with Deng — they're both on the board of MySpace China — we think he should be buttering up News Corp heir apparent Peter Chernin, who recent fillings revealed to be the highest paid person at News Corp.
"News Corp. said Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch received compensation for the year ended June 30 valued at $32.1 million under the SEC new rules, according to its annual proxy. Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer, received compensation valued at about $34 million.... Roger Ailes, head of News Corp.'s Fox News Channel and planned Fox Business Network, and Fox Television Stations, received compensation valued under the SEC rules at $10.9 million." So that's how it works at News Corp.: the more evil you are, the less money you take home? Weird. [WSJ]
In an attempt to stave off a decline in circulation, News Corp. has slashed prices on its flagship U.K. tabloid The Sun. Given the fact that News Corp.'s Post is also being sold at a loss, how much longer can it be before Rupert Murdoch starts showing up at your door and giving you his papers for free? Well, at least he can still charge a premium for the Wall Street Journal, one of the classier publications in his stable. That's right, Journalists, RUPERT MURDOCH OWNS YOU. Expect him in person in mere seconds. [Guardian]
News Corp., under CEO Rupert Murdoch, already has developed a reputation for stealing websites, when a Fox television show or advertiser covets a desirable URL on the MySpace social network. But Murdoch's website-snatching ways extend further than that. On Wednesday, News Corp. and NBC Universal announced that their online-video joint venture finally had a name, "Hulu". But before Hulu.com fell into Murdoch's hands, the website featured no videos at all — just innocent pictures of a couple's 7-year-old daughter.
At last, the online-video joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., long ridiculed for its lack of a name other than "NewCo," has an official moniker, and a website, Hulu. It also has a $100 million investment, besides the backing of its parent companies, from Providence Equity Partners; a CEO, former Amazon.com executive Jason Kilar; and fancy offices in Los Angeles. What it still lacks, of course, is a shot in hell at competing with YouTube.
Broadcast network NBC has inked promotional deals with almost every major Internet player to distribute the pilot episodes for its new fall lineup. Almost, that is, because it appears to be shunning Google's YouTube online-video site, as well as the News Corp.-owned MySpace. According to The Hollywood Reporter, episodes of new shows "Chuck," "Life," and "Journeyman" will be available for download on Amazon beginning September 10. If you'd prefer to download using Apple's iTunes software, sign up for the Apple Students group on social network Facebook. Members of that group get a one-week headstart on downloading the pilots. Prefer to stream your entertainment? Beginning in mid-September, you can catch "Life" on AOL, "Journeyman" on MSN, and "Chuck" on Yahoo. But it's the omissions that are really interesting.
