MySpace tests out news business

MySpace, the market leader in Internet social networking,
recently introduced a news service on its popular site. MySpace hopes the new feature will be another incentive to keep members browsing. 

The service, called MySpace News, gathers news articles from thousands of Internet sources. The articles are then sorted into news categories such as auto, fashion, music, gossip, headline news and television. The publishing date and a short preview of the piece follow the headline of the article. MySpace members may then click on the article to read it in its entirety.
News publishers, however, may ask to have their news feed removed. 

Like Google News, the articles on MySpace get more front-page exposure if its members deem it popular. MySpace members rate the articles they like or dislike. The articles are scored on a five-point scale from “useless” to “must read.” This gives the users the ability to decide MySpace’s displayed news.  

“MySpace News is designed to let users decide what’s most relevant to them,” MySpace President Tom Anderson said.
“We’re putting it to the community to be the editorial engine driving our news service.”

The service is an attempt to keep members on its site longer. According to ComScore Network’s March statistics, the site has 100 million unique visitors. ComScore Network reports that the typical American MySpace user spends 10 minutes per visit about 19 times a month. 

According to Alexa.com, MySpace is the fifth most popular site on the Internet. The site has at least 5,500 members who are Boise State students or alumni. There are thousands of non-student members in the Boise area as well.   

Most of those users will likely overlook MySpace News.

The service can be difficult for members to find. This may be
intentional, since the new feature is still in beta (testing) mode.

Members can see it directly by going to
http://news.myspace.com.

Nathan Thomas

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