By Kenneth Li
NEW YORK (Reuters) -
News Corp's Fox Interactive Media
Internet division could fall short of its fiscal 2008 revenue
target of $1 billion, as it reorganizes its divisions to better
exploit the online advertising market.
The News Corp division that oversees the world's largest
social network MySpace said in a statement it plans to
officially launch its long-awaited online advertising network.
The FIM Audience Network will consolidate its newly
developed advertising technologies such as its
"hyper-targeting" tools that tailors advertisements to Web
surfer's interest.
"I am confident that we are moving in the right direction
to secure our long-term success, and I am certain that we have
the right leadership team in place to take us there," FIM Chief
Peter Levinsohn said in a memo to employees obtained by
Reuters.
Regarding its revenue targets, Fox Interactive Media said
in a statement, "We expect to be close to our target."
The memo partially confirms a report on technology blog
TechCrunch, which reported late on Thursday that the division
would miss its annual revenue target of about $1 billion and
likely come in at around $900 million.
Fox Interactive Media said Adam Bain, executive vice
president of production and technology at FIM, will be named
president of FIM Audience Network.
The restructuring will also see the departure of Chief
Revenue Officer Michael Barrett, a former Time Warner Inc
executive, the company said.
The ability to efficiently sell advertising on social
networks was questioned after Google Inc, a close partner of
MySpace, expressed early doubts about its ability to "monetize"
social network advertising in a conference call following the
release of its first quarter financial report.
But MySpace's new hyper-targeting technologies is designed
to address those short-comings of the relatively new market.
The timing of the rollout of the new technology could be
partially to blame for the potential shortfall, one company
source said.
Levinsohn also told employees that the unit's sales
department would also be decentralized to improve
accountability.
"By integrating the sales teams in this way, each operating
unit will be empowered to assume responsibility for its
revenue, growth and profitability," Levinsohn told employees in
the memo.
(Editing by Anshuman Daga)
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