Murdoch Digital Floundering

Rupert Murdoch doesn’t have much to show for his digital efforts. He is still threatening pay-walls and seems to have little feel for a New Media that seriously threatens his bottom line. In the UK, the Telegraph Media Group and the Guardian newspaper continue to enjoy better traffic and more critical praise than The Times Online. The Telegraph is branching out with its Create department searching for business development ideas and exploiting the platform for advertorial purposes.

And on broader fronts there are setbacks for Murdoch. The latest came yesterday with the resignation of Silicon Valley veteran Owen Van Natta as CEO of MySpace, the tumbling social networking site Murdoch bought for nearly $600 million five years ago.

Van Natta, a former Facebook executive, was brought in just last year with the task of reviving a site that has seen a significant fall-off in membership and revenue. Murdoch has decided to distance the site from its origins and turn it into a portal for movie content and games. Reports are that Van Natta clashed with other Murdoch executives.