IP Democracy: Murdoch, MySpace & Media 2.0

I’d recommend this long piece in Wired by Spencer Reiss, on Rupert Murdoch’s plan to “transform a free social network into a colossal marketing machine.”

Without the old network certainties, who or what will perform the essential function of a media company - that is, grab and hold attention on an industrial scale? MySpace offers an answer.

…The site’s greatest value isn’t connecting people to products, people to information, or eyeballs to advertisers. It’s connecting people to people…And that’s where MySpace could strike gold: It lets News Corp. host the cultural conversation…Murdoch won’t have to give the people what they want - they’ll get it themselves…[A]udiences create hits. Make that happen more quickly, cheaply, and reliably, and you have a philosopher’s stone for media: a Net-fueled word-of-mouth machine.

…”You’ll see us morphing from a content company into a marketing company,” [Fox Interactive President Ross] Levinsohn says, “a youth marketing company especially, because that’s where everything starts. No one is going to be able to control the flow of content the way we used to. MySpace gives us the ability to look inside and understand how hits get created” - that is, to spot micro-niches, track early breakouts, and identify hot IM buzzwords as they bubble up.

The piece also underscores that, while Murdoch controls one of the world’s dominant media conglomerates, he appears to still think like an entrepreneur, rather than a corporate exec concerned with next quarter’s financial results. And, in this era of disruptive change, I’d bet that approach will continue to give him a key competitive advantage.

“God knows what we’re going to do with MySpace,” he says…”We’re just discovering what this thing can do.” This is the kind of statement that confounds his more hidebound rivals and sends nervous chills down Wall Street’s spine: What will Rupert do next?

Posted by Mitch Shapiro on June 28, 2006 1:09 PM to IP Democracy