Here at All Things Digital, we are always fussing away on our site, making a variety of improvements regularly to make the experience better for our readers.
In that vein, we have recently added two new features over the last weeks, which deserve a look-see: Topic pages and job listings.
Check them out.
Over the last weeks, News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller and MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta have had their hands full directing massive layoffs at the flagship social-networking site, as well as throughout the Fox Interactive Media division.
The pair discussed the many challenges faced by the giant media company in its digital enterprises in an onstage interview at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference last month.
The layoffs at Fox Interactive Media moved on to Photobucket today, as one-third of its staff of about 120 were let go, sources close to the situation said.
The photo- and video-hosting service was bought for $250 million in mid-2007 by News Corp.
A FIM spokesperson confirmed the layoffs after being contacted by BoomTown, but declined to give specific numbers. But sources told me a total of about 75 people were fired.
In a move that many in the Silicon Valley chattering classes were certainly wondering about, former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner has been named CEO of LinkedIn, the largest social network focused on professionals.
Weiner, 39, who has been the president of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company since late last year, will also join the board of directors.
Current CEO, Chairman and founder Reid Hoffman will become executive chairman and will continue to work on a daily basis at LinkedIn. He said the move was not part of preparations for an initial public offering but because Weiner had already been handling the duties of CEO for some time.
Earlier today, there was an odd little news kerfuffle around the status of MySpace international head Travis Katz, as the troubled social-networking site laid off 300 of its non-U.S. employees.
Last week, MySpace announced it was reducing its U.S. staff by 420 workers in what has been a major restructuring for the News Corp. unit.
Well, to clear up the is-he-is-or-is-he-ain’t question, it turns out Katz is definitely not leaving in the current shake-up.
Now what?
The party-all-night social-networking site that has been MySpace so far got a massive morning-after shock yesterday when 30 percent of its workforce was laid off.
And today, MySpace, which is still 1,000-strong, has to face the cold, harsh light of day in the aftermath of the restructuring and get busy quickly figuring out a way to reinvigorate a brand that has suffered after a stunning rocket of a start many years ago.
So, based on many sources I have spoken to over the last week, here’s a rundown of the next steps MySpace will likely be taking and who’ll be making them.
Yes, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz did indeed drop the F-bomb on BoomTown quite expertly in an onstage interview at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference recently–and, yes, it was both expected and enjoyable.
(In this picture, she is clearly trying to hypnotize me with her stare.)
But that’s not all the voluble leader of the long-troubled Internet company said in what was a sassy, funny and very lively session at D7, where she talked about a lot of topics, from Microsoft to Google to the state of the advertising market in the weak economy.
Tomorrow, just two weeks after it took place, All Things Digital will start posting the full sessions of the recent seventh D: All Things Digital conference.
We could not accommodate everyone who wanted to come in person, so you have already lost the opportunity to annoy major tech and media moguls and my mother all in one place (although Mission Accomplished! for BoomTown), but will be able to see all the content onstage here, in its entirety, on ATD, in the exact order we put on the show at the conference.
As a primer, here’s News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and singer Jill Sobule opening the show.
Big, giant and prolonged sigh–as well as a cranky-old-lady shake of the fist–to our distant cousins over at the Fox television network who dinged BoomTown’s favorite sci-fi show, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” today.
I am officially in a Summer Glau funk, with major gadget withdrawal.
Loosely based on the movie franchise, the show garnered a passionate fan base online and off, but not enough to merit being renewed. It’s ironic since the latest film in the cyborg-versus-man epic, “Terminator Salvation,” will open this Thursday.
But one of the TV show’s stars is fighting back online. All hail the Resistance!
BoomTown is winging it across the country for a Dow Jones event in Chicago–we do our part for the mother ship here at All Things Digital!–so there will not likely be posts today.
That is, unless Yahoo and Microsoft merge, buy Twitter and mount a cavalry attack on the Googleplex.
One can dream!
MySpace has officially announced the appointment of entrepreneur and former AOL exec Mike Jones as COO, as BoomTown had reported earlier today.
But the social-networking site also named former Sling Media top exec Jason Hirschhorn as chief product officer in what has become a series of senior management moves at MySpace.
Both Hirschhorn and Jones will report to newly named CEO Owen Van Natta, the former COO of Facebook, who replaced MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe last week.
Once the trio get their bearings, many sources indicate that News Corp., owner of MySpace, has given Van Natta and his key execs free reign to remake the unit from top to bottom.
New MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta starts his first day on the job at MySpace bright and early this morning, coming to its Beverly Hills HQ as he takes over for co-founder and former CEO Chris DeWolfe.
Along with him will also be a new COO, former AOL exec Mike Jones, whose appointment will be announced this morning, sources said.
Jones was the founder of Userplane, a social-networking application maker that was bought by then-AOL head Jon Miller in 2006. Miller is now the digital chief at News Corp., which owns MySpace.
With a strong product and technology background, Jones is an excellent choice to be a partner to Van Natta–who was hired by Miller last week in a flurry of change at the social-networking site.
Former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta has finally been officially named as CEO of MySpace, as BoomTown reported yesterday and News Corp. announced this morning.
He will replace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe, who stepped down from the job earlier this week. DeWolfe will remain a strategic adviser at MySpace.
Here’s the full press release.
Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta will be named CEO of MySpace as early as tomorrow said sources close to the situation.
He will replace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe, who stepped down from the job yesterday. DeWolfe will remain a strategic adviser at MySpace.
No other top execs at the huge social-networking site will be named yet, as some have reported.
Finally, Owen Van Natta is about to win out over a founder.
The former Facebook COO is poised to become the CEO of MySpace, replacing co-founder and current CEO Chris DeWolfe.
DeWolfe will likely get a title as a special adviser to MySpace in a deal that is still coming together.
But the die seems cast for Van Natta to take over the thorny job of rehauling MySpace, which is owned by News Corp.
It’s familiar territory for him.
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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