The deep restructuring at MySpace continues apace with new appointments and the bold admission from its CEO that consumers are losing the MySpace message.
Recently-appointed CEO Owen Van Natta admits in an internal memo that MySpace has a “confusing brand identity.” He added “our users don’t know if we’re a social portal, a music site, or an entertainment hub.”
The views reinforce News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch’s angst over the performance of the social networking platform, of which he recently admitted needs to be refocused "as an entertainment portal." Murdoch has also taken the blame for the recent ‘right-sizing” of MySpace’s operations globally which he told US press “grew out of control and really out of size. I blame myself and it had to be brought back in size.”
In recent weeks, News Corp announced that MySpace would “partner” with stable mate Fox International Channels (FIC) under a multi-territory arrangement covering Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Poland, Mexico, and Turkey. The outsourcing move would help rationalise staff and offices through Europe, and assist in executing the decision made last month to cut international staff down from 450 to 150 and close four international offices.
Yesterday the head of the International operations MD and SVP Europe and UK, Travis Katz announced he would leave News Corp after five years to seek “entrepreneurial opportunities.” The move has resulted in the ascension of Australian MySpace founding exec Rebekah Horne to the key role.
Katz is credited as being one of the architects of the launch of Fox Interactive Media and is series of online content acquisitions including MySpace, gaming portal IGN and film hub Rotten Tomatoes.
