Just Like It Now Gets The Internet, News Corp. Now Gets Mobile, Too
from the get-this dept
A lot of people said that News Corporation's purchase of MySpace was a sign that the company now "gets" the internet -- although that's far from certain. The company is today on the receiving end of a glowing story in The New York Times, discussing how the company's making such a bold move by starting a site to sell mobile content. The company's done quite a PR job, somehow leading the Times reporter to believe that this effort is somehow noteworthy, mostly because it's coming from a big-media company (anybody remember the catastrophic failure that was Vizzavi?). Apparently the new venture, called Mobizzo, is a really big deal because News Corp. is "bypassing the exclusive arrangements common with wireless phone companies" -- it may be bypassing carrier portal placement, sure, but it's billing for its services through carriers, whereby consumers pay for the content they download on their mobile-phone bill, and the carrier takes a cut and passes the rest on to the content provider -- just like plenty of other content providers already do. All News Corp. has done is throw its hat into what's a quickly imploding market, and to suggest that this is somehow a big deal, or represents some great understanding of the mobile space, is laughable. If any plaudits are deserved, they should go to the News Corp. PR team for once again getting the company's late-arriving me-too efforts portrayed as revolutionary.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
News Corp. did a pretty good job of indicating that they have no idea what they are doing with Myspace last night when they ran an ad before the simpsons to 'check it out on myspace.com' for something or other.
I can't think of any better way for them to destroy any sort of 'cool' credibility they have with their users.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
It's about time there was a cell phone-based news and stock ticker for the African American investor!
Yo, dawg, BET is down a point on heavy trading. Who got capped?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
if ever there was a cellular company tripping over themselves to appeal to black people it is BOOST.. so blatently that its probably insulting..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No Subject Given
Yup, but T-Mobile proved that their pair clank with the "Poser Mobile" spoofs :-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]