MySpace, YourSpace, OurSpace, TheirSpace

Rupert Murdoch gave a speech to the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers last month in which he said that the days of the old media baron were numbered.

He said: "A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it."

Fine words from a 75 year old. And Murdoch has put his money where his mouth is with News Corp investing almost $1bn in online and $400m on MySpace.com alone.

Murdoch may be right, the old media baron's days may be numbered as media consumption habits change, but the acquisition of MySpace and the stories being associated with it now do not indicate that 'old media barons' know anything about online yet.

It has been revealed that Coca-Cola is aiming to tap into youth culture with a series of viral ads that will be distributed via social networking Web sites such as MySpace.com. Stories have also been circulating about tie-ups with other News Corp assets in the UK ahead of the launch of the UK front end of MySpace, including tie-ups with The Sun – all of which have been denied.

News Corp needs MySpace to start paying its way. If there is anything I can tell you about publishing it is that proprietors do not like loss makers. But trying to attract advertisers to MySpace will defeat the object of the community in the first place.

MySpace is an anti-portal, an environment that lends itself to free expression and the original ethos of the Web, open communication. For starters this is not the usual environment that brands enjoy online and secondly the users will simply move on if it becomes a branded world. Other models mooted include adding e-commerce, again a turkey in my opinion as it is against the natural ethos of the community.

In response to the problem of disparate online assets News Corp began creating last year Fox Interactive Media, an overarching online play, which will hopefully for Murdoch bring together all of his Internet investments and make them pay off.

The problem is that the more you try and commercialise MySpace, the more you damage what you have bought in the first place, a community. It’s a unique problem for Murdoch and anyone else who has invested in social networks in the hope of capitalising on the phenomenon and as yet I have not seen a model that I think works. All Murdoch may end up with in the end is a very expensive promoter of his TV programmes.