MYSPACE CONSIDERS GOING PRINT ONLY

August 4 2009

Beverly Hills, CA – While MySpace certainly wasn’t the first social networking site on the web, it certainly was the one that made the whole genre mainstream. Founded in 2003 the site was one of handful which gripped mainstream attention in the post-internet bubble world. Responsible for the rise of successful music stars and
celebrities, as well as the new dominance of sites such as Facebook and Twitter, MySpace will likely be regarded as one of the most important and influential in the history of the web.

Things though haven’t been as rosy as they once were at the place for friends. With dwindling revenues and an increasingly impatient parent company in the body of News Corporation the company has been forced to make some tough decisions. The increasing competition not only from Facebook but also Twitter, combined with the rapid decline of advertising revenue across the spectrum, the former giant of the industry has started to think differently and is exploring not only new avenues for generating revenue, but also for new ways to engage their audience. One of those ways includes the company exploring the possibility of a print-only version of the site which would be distributed across the United States.

“It’s very important that we continue to grow and evolve as a company. We aren’t
going to pretend that that we haven’t had a kind of internal crisis of conscience recently but out that diversity has come new innovations and new ways of thinking. We are very excited about these new directions and we have very much learned that necessity is the mother of invention,” said President Tom Anderson. “We feel that this print version of the site will not only engage our existing audience in a totally fresh and original way but will also help us engage a whole new audience. That in turn should help us bring the kind of fiscal viability that we, our employees, and our users deserve. With the emerging power of print we feel this is the most sensible and logical direction for us in which to move.”

Print has long been a efficient form of communication though the medium did not fully take off until the invention of the movable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440. Since that time it has been the primary form of communication throughout the world.

“Websites have generally eschewed traditional media such as print. There are a number of reasons for that but the general consensus is that many site owners truly believe in digital media and use it regardless of the existing options. With an entire generation that has grown up with digital medium there is a loyalty to it and a tendency to ignore or dismiss anything that seems old, as has been the case with print,” said Scrape TV Media analyst Sarah Piper. “It will be interesting to see what kind of form this takes. Will they print daily like newspapers? Weekly? Monthly? What kind of subscription model will they use? Will the subscriber be able to choose whose updates they will get? There are a lot of questions still to be answered but it is an interesting and potentially game changing move.”

The print edition of MySpace is expected to highlight blog posts and new pictures. It’s is believed that initially the print editions will focus on high end users but eventually may allow for more localized editions.

“If this becomes a success I would imagine we will see a lot more companies jumping
on board. The web is a notoriously difficult place to make money and any kind of forward thinking that would enable growth in that realm would be a welcome change. Pretty soon we may see Twitter and Facebook and who knows, maybe even YouTube in print,” continued Piper. “There is this legacy kind of idea that permeates the web. Many people feel that it has to be web and web only but that attitude seems to be changing as it must for these companies to survive. Hopefully this isn’t an isolated incident and companies will continue to reach out to traditional media for new ideas, even if they are old ideas.”

Google has previously tested print options for their search no little effect. Rumours suggest that search competitor Microsoft has a working model for a print version of their engine Bing ready for distribution but as yet have given no details on a release.  

Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent

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