Farewell Mr MySpace President
June 17th, 2010 | by Jen |Five months after a reorganisation that forced out the previous chief executive, Jason Hirschhorn, co-president of News Corp-owned MySpace, is leaving the social networking company. Mike Jones, currently the other co-president of MySpace, will run the unit. Additional management at MySpace is unlikely.
MySpace, once a cultural touchstone that made internet social networks a household name has fallen far behind rival Facebook causing the executive shuffle.The setback mirrors a string of other failed attempts by traditional media companies to integrate internet acquisitions.
The departure also comes ahead of a deadline in two weeks when MySpace’s lucrative internet search deal with Google expires. News Corp secured a landmark deal in 2007 to be paid $900m to use Google’s search and advertising services. Google may be paying $100m less on the original contract as the deal was contingent on meeting minimum traffic requirements, which had fallen short, News Corp executives said late last year. It is not immediately clear if it would be able to replace the deal or with whom.
Mr Hirschhorn, was named co-president after former top dog Owen Van Natta left the company. “We fully respect Jason’s decision to leave and his personal desire to return to New York,” said Jonathan Miller, chief digital officer of News Corp.
“As many people know, Jason is like family to me, and as expected, he’s done everything we asked of him and more. We’re incredibly grateful for the passion and enthusiasm he brought to the company.”
Mr Miller recruited Mr Hirschhorn from Sling Media, a start-up that let television viewers watch videos on wireless mobile devices. EchoStar Communications purchased Sling in 2007.
MySpace, once the largest global internet social network, is now a distant second behind Facebook. MySpace attracted 111m unique visitors in April, while Facebook attracted 519m, according to comScore, an internet audience tracking company. In recent months, the company has raced to restructure the business, and has said it planned to rely on online music, games and videos.
Unconfirmed speculation that News Corp was considering putting MySpace up for sale was quickly damped down by executives earlier this year.