Exclusive: MySpace News Launches Thursday
On Thursday morning MySpace will launch its much rumored news property at news.myspace.com. Expect the site to go live and a press release to be issued around 7 am EST. — The news property is built on Newroo technology, a company they acquired in early 2006 for a rumored $7 million.
Context & Ripple Effects
March coverage positioned MySpace News as an early-Q2 social-news product designed to aggregate real-time reporting and blogs from across the web. Thursday’s rollout turns that previously signaled social-news plan into a dedicated MySpace destination.
The product also puts the 2006 Newroo acquisition to use. Reuters framed the launch as a test of whether a news service can expand MySpace’s advertising business, while the Times of London cast it as a challenge to established news-discovery services.
First-order effects
- MySpace gains a news-specific surface built on Newroo technology, giving its audience a place to discover aggregated reporting and blogs without leaving the network.
- Publishers and bloggers included in MySpace News gain a potential new referral channel, while MySpace controls the destination where that discovery occurs.
Second-order effects
- Google News and Digg face another large-audience entry point competing for attention around aggregated news; MySpace’s differentiator is its existing social audience rather than a standalone news brand.
- MySpace can test whether news browsing creates additional ad inventory and engagement, extending its revenue model beyond profile-page activity.
Third-order effects
- If social networks make news discovery a core destination, publishers become more dependent on platform distribution for audience acquisition, while platforms gain greater influence over which sources users encounter.
- The launch is an early instance of news aggregation shifting from dedicated services toward social-network environments that combine content discovery with advertising.
The trend: Social networks are broadening from profile-centric communities into gateways for news discovery, using aggregation to capture attention and advertising demand.