MySpace shake-up: Van Natta to be new CEO

Less than a month after former AOL chief Jonathan Miller joined News Corp to oversee the digital media business, the expected shake-up in the top management at MySpace has begun. On 22 April, Miller and MySpace chief executive officer Chris DeWolfe announced DeWolfe will soon step down from the top job. He will remain on the board of MySpace China for now, and continue on as a strategic advisor.

MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson, long every user's first "friend" on the site, remains president, but is also in talks with Miller about a new role at the company.
Though Miller had been considering a management shakeup at the social networking site that Murdoch bought for $580 million in 2005, he had not planned to announce the change for some time. However, widespread media speculation seems to have hurried his hand.

It is widely believed that Miller has narrowed his choice for the chief executive's job to former Facebook operating chief Owen Van Natta, The Wall Street Journal has even affirmed that News Corp plans to announce Van Natta's appointment as early as Friday.

The company's next chief executive will certainly face some challenges, as the site is off to a rough year. The number of US visitors dropped off to just 70 million in March after hovering around 75 million for the last seven months. Top talent like former chief operating officer Amit Kapur is leaving the company. And like other media companies, MySpace is feeling the effects of the slowing economy.

This all comes after a disappointing 2008, in which analysts estimate MySpace posted revenue of about $600 million -- far short of the $1 billion target set by its parent company.

MySpace seems to be falling behind Facebook in the all-important race to sign up new users. Facebook now has more than 61 million US visitors, up 70 per cent from a year ago, according to ComScore. And internationally, the site has leapt ahead with 296 million visitors to MySpace's 126 million in March.

But Miller and News Corp do have some things going for them. Its loyal fan base spends a whopping 266 minutes a month on the site, according to Comscore, more time than on any other social network. Further, MySpace is the only social network so far to come up with a business model that squeezes substantial revenue out of the site.

In choosing Van Natta, News Corp. is placing the future of MySpace in the hands of an executive with deep roots in Silicon Valley. He became chief operating officer at Facebook in 2005, when the site was a closed Web hub mostly for students. He helped spearhead Facebook's expansion into a mass-market online site and a legitimate business. Van Natta also helped shepherd an investment by Microsoft Corp and jump-started Facebook's efforts to generate money.

He later stepped into a less prominent role as Facebook's chief revenue officer and ultimately left the company in early 2008. He became chief executive of music streaming site Project Playlist last year.