Last month, MySpace launched it’s Digg clone MySpace News, today the site announced branded video channels. The so-called premium content set to be offered on the site in the next few months will come from FOX’s IGN Entertainment, VBS.tv, National Geographic, The New York Times and Reuters. The move once again illustrates the dangers of a large company gobbling up a hot startup with no obvious long-term strategy.
In much the same way that MySpace’s Digg clone was an ineffective kneejerk reaction to another market phenomenon, this latest move feels a lot like the old “see what sticks to the wall” strategy.
On the other hand, the rumor that MySpace was snapping up Photobucket, a tool many MySpacers already use for video, was a deal (which, interestingly, hasn’t been closed according to any reliable reports)
that made sense.
But it’s stretch to believe that 1) the MySpace crowd will flock to high brow New York Times video content and 2) that a transgressive brand like VBS.tv (aka Vice Magazine) will last on any property owned by the usually conservative News Corp.
A quick visit to MySpace News (the site's first major also-ran experiment) reveals tepid traffic and few story votes. Assuming that branded channels is the next step for MySpace "seems" like the right way to go if you follow the meme trail (i.e. video is hot, hot, hot), but MySpace functions more as a social networking home rather than a content consumption destination. The two aren't an automatic match. It's the same reason you'll rarely see a popular written blog on YouTube—that's not what visitors come to the site for. MySpace has inadvertently shown that there is a lack of long vision at the newly acquired property. Luckily, News Corp./MySpace owner Rupert Murdoch has enough money to make a few mistakes and then correct course.
