So, the MySpace is adding a news component to its slate o’features. Given that the parent company of MySpace is News Corporation, this isn’t so much of a surprise as it is a question of what took so long. I know it’s not because the company’s shy about self-promotion.
Online speculation has it that Newsroo, a company recently acquired by News Corp will be serving up the headlines to the movers and shakers of the MySpace community (this speculation is fueled by the fact that Newsroo’s home page now redirects to the MySpace homepage). According to one site, deals are being struck all over the news universe. This site also curiously refers to MySpace as a pureplay online company; that shipped more or less sailed when the site was acquired by a major media giant. Slowly but surely the influence of the Murdoch empire has crept into the site, and we recently received samplers from the MySpace music label. Now that they’ve lived with MySpace for a while, the folks at News Corp. are desperately seeking ways to squeeze every nickel and dime out of it
Don’t let my cynicism fool you: This is good news for news. It makes sense to have the headlines where the readers are. It’s also an opportunity for non-traditional news sources to break into new markets. It might even make the whole MySpace experience almost bearable for those of us who find the whole thing overwhelmingly bad.
Okay, probably not, but adding news feeds is a positive step.
As far as the Myspace love fest. It needs to end. Artist, fans, and consumers of content must know and understand that any revenue generated for Myspace (A Newscorp company) is going to continue to fund the operations of fox news ( http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/) as well as the continued dismantling of independent media around the world. If as an artist or a fan or a user of the Internet you support any social issues or an independent and free media then myspace is not the place to become a member. By doing this you give them continued revenue and power.
Does that mean that I have to stop enjoying all of my “Simpsons” DVDs as well? Or not watch baseball games on FOX Sports?
A much better reason to stop using MySpace would be that it’s ad-laden and the UI sucks total ass.
I think that you fight FOX News not by trying to stop their funding by boycotting all other FOX products, but rather calling them on their bullshit and fighting fire with fire.
Best of all: millions of anti-FOX News MySpace pages.