It looks like News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has lost faith in Beliefnet.

[babylonsister]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/05/news-corp-puts-beliefnet-on-the-block.html

News Corp. puts Beliefnet on the block
May 27, 2010 | 2:14 pm


It looks like News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has lost faith in Beliefnet.

After only three years of ownership, the media giant is seeking a buyer for Beliefnet, a website devoted to religion and spirituality. The decision was first reported by AllThingsD and confirmed by people with knowledge of the situation.

News Corp. acquired Beliefnet for an undisclosed sum in 2007, with plans to integrate it with the company's other faith-based units, including HarperCollin's Zondervan unit, which publishes bibles and Christian titles such as Rick Warren's best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life." Fox Home Entertainment also operates Fox Faith, a label that distributes family films and Christian DVDs to retailers and through churches and ministries. Kabbalah1wlafnc

Beliefnet has won accolades for its content. which spans the spectrum of spirituality, touching upon Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, secular philosophies and more in addition to Christianity and Judaism. However, the number of regular visitors has dropped from about 2.8 million in October of 2007 to about 2.4 million in April, according to comScore. And co-founder Steve Waldman left last fall to take a position with the Federal Communications Commission.

As with other digital assets, News Corp. has decided to jettison Beliefnet as no longer fitting with its strategy. In January the corporation sold its popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes to Flixster, although it retains a minority stake. A month earlier, it shed its photo sharing site Photobucket, which merged with Ontela, a maker of software that simplifies the process of uploading pictures taken with camera phones to online photo or social networking sites.

News Corp. is also looking to unload its Jamba mobile content business, which is based in Berlin. Fox paid VeriSign Inc. $188 million for a controlling interest in the company in 2006 and paid nearly $200 million to acquire it outright in 2008.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

[KharmaTrain]

1. Red Ink As Far As The Eye Can See...

It's not just Murdoch (even though its good to see him losing massive amounts)...the corporate media world is having big time financial problems. Newspapers continue to flounder with less and less readers and revenues, radio has gone into bankruptcy, television continues to cut expenses and corners to keep up with their excesses. Many of these high rollers are seeing a different world today. Rupert bought high and got soaked on his web "strategy"...and now he's shedding losses; as he should.

The fun will be in the next couple years as his print divisions continue to lose money...and he gets older. It will be delightful the day his media reign of terror is over and his "empire" is divided up.

[monmouth]

2. And yet, as Beck loses and loses advertisers, Rupert/Ailes still

keep him on his show. I don't get it.

[KharmaTrain]

3. He's A Loss Leader...

While most companies avoid advertising on his show, they do on others. Rupert sells on the overall ratings and when Dreck was pulling in 3 million a day, Rupert was charging higher rates across the board. So he may have lost for one hour, but made up for it in all the others.

[monmouth]

5. Ah, got it. Thanks...n/t

[blogslut]

4. Murdoch has never been particularly clever

His strength has always been in acquisition. He doesn't "get" emerging media. Instead, he purchases successful, existing online entities and is then unable to nurture them towards further profitability.

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. Yeah, he thought it was a genius move when he bought "MySpace"

which of course, was totally eclipsed by Facebook not long after that.

Oops.... sorry about that, Rupert. :rofl: