The Sun is planning to tie in its website with the recently acquired MySpace.com community and networking site to create a ‘MySun’ online readers’ network. The plan is to allow readers to go to a MySun portal and create their own web pages, blogs, as well as share pictures and video clips with friends using MySpace.com software. News International considered linking MySpace.com with the TimesOnline but thought that the Sun provided a better audience.
Rupert Murdoch (pictured) is attempting to show that at 75 he is still one step ahead of his competitors with this latest move. Not only does the deal have the potential to bring a younger generation back to newspapers, albeit online, but it allows them to increase their interaction with the site. There is too much choice on the web to keep people on the same website unless they can do things beyond reading information. MySpace.com and Facebook.com have proved to be so immensely popular because people can interact with the website and network with others. However, the move could always backfire with younger users resenting the newspaper trying to take over 'their' site and force-feeding them advertising. In the past successful websites have often lost their appeal once big corporations take them over.
The deal will certainly be met with a lot of scepticism but then when hasn't a move made by Murdoch been met with opposition and criticism? Time and again he has proved the critics wrong so don't be surprised if Murdoch’s latest gamble once again leads the way forward for the media.
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