This is an interesting philosophy from an interesting source.
Rupert Murdoch told an investor conference Tuesday that he didn’t see a need to distribute programming or other media content from his News Corp. conglomerate through Internet portals.
How much is posturing and how much is above board is unclear.
This seems like a radical concept at this time of "Web 2.0".
“We’re not sure the portal model is the way of the future at all,” Murdoch told a conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs. “We think people are going straight to the sites.”
The new owner of MySpace has some more interesting observations.
Murdoch, whose acquisition of the hugely popular social networking site MySpace.com has inspired envy among other media moguls, cited the example of Yahoo’s HotJobs employment site, but noted that Internet users might go to any number of other Web destinations that also carry job listings.
Of course, he could be doing the "rope-a-dope" too.
The Times newspaper in London, which is owned by News Corp., has a site that is far smaller than the BBC’s, Murdoch said, but he noted that it still has 6 million monthly visitors that didn’t necessarily have to get there through a portal site.
Then again, those numbers buttress his argument.
“I don’t think you have to say you have to go to Fox online to find The Times online,” Murdoch said. Fox is another News Corp. property.
True, but then again, this is the internet. If it's easier for someone to go through a portal to get to a site, then they will. If it's easier to simply make a site a 'favorites' and go that way, they will. It's a fickle crowd.
Murdoch has always found a way to the top. I'd hate to bet against him.
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