Randomly Noted

One of last week’s more significant corporate news developments was the departure of MySpace’s boss, Owen Van Natta, just nine or so months after he joined News Corp. (our employer) and set about trying to turn a profit. The specifics of Van Natta’s exit aren’t entirely clear; the Los Angeles Times says he clashed with his colleagues and their boss, Jon Miller. I’m less interested in the corporate intrigue than with the social networking conundrum. Even mighty Facebook still struggles to make money, as does Twitter. Advertisers are in fact paying a lot of attention to social networking sites, but Facebook et al still have little pricing leverage, as a “Seeking Alpha” piece by Andy Beal shows. This is because social network users are apathetic about online ads. An earlier Beal post, citing Forrester Research, says only 2% of purchases are driven by ads on social networking sites. It’s an extraordinary phenomenon given how many hours consumers spend Tweeting and onFacebook and MySpace. In essence, these sites are simply not conducive to whetting buyers’ appetites. At MySpace, Van Natta has been replaced by a co-presidential duo of insiders, Mike Jones and Jason Hirschorn. It will be interesting to see where they take MySpace from here, including managing its pact with Google and continuing to firm up its identity as a music and entertainment destination. “It’s not yet where we want it,” News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said of the division in a recent earnings conference call.