Pretty great Rupert Murdoch profile in this week's Time. Former Fortune managing editor Eric Pooley caught the mogul in action as negotiations with the Dow Jones board over editorial independence for the Wall Street Journal were being conducted. Here's why the News Corp. head usually gets what he wants:
"While teens on Facebook all know about MySpace, not all MySpace users have heard of Facebook. In particular, subaltern teens who go to school exclusively with other subaltern teens are not likely to have heard of it. Subaltern teens who go to more mixed-class schools see Facebook as "what the good kids do" or "what the preps do." They have various labels for these hegemonic teens but they know the division, even if they don't have words for it. Likewise, in these types of schools, the hegemonic teens see MySpace as "where the bad kids go." "Good" and "bad" seem to be the dominant language used to divide hegemonic and subaltern teens in mixed-class environments." [Danah]
On Friday, the Dow Jones board gave News Corp. its proposal to safeguard the editorial independence of the Wall Street Journal; News Corp. "reacted coolly," and responded yesterday with "a significantly altered draft." News Corp.'s version offers a 15-member board, with one seat for the Bancrofts and five members appointed independently. The board would have no authority over the hiring or firing of personnel including the WSJs publisher. Nevertheless, the two sides are supposedly close to agreement, according to an insider who stipulates that "a deal between Mr. Murdoch and the Bancrofts' advisers did not mean that either the Dow Jones board or the family, which controls 64 percent of the shareholder votes, would approve the arrangement."
One of 35-year-old Atoosa Rubenstein's army of teenaged galpals posed this intriguing question on her MySpace: "When do you feel most beautiful?" Chloe says that she feels most beautiful "right after washing my face. I am not sure why, but I feel like my impurities and masks are washed away, revealing my true alpha kitty self." Wow, how empowering! Or how like a Biore ad! As for the 'Toos, she feels most beautiful "when I consistently make healthy food choices instead of filling myself up with crap food (like I did last night - went out to Cowgirl (website) in the West Village with a big group of friends and I inhaled too much onion loaf, fries and a big steak fajita. At least I drew the line at the corn dogs I was totally eyeing...). When I eat well, I know I'm treating my body (and in turn, myself) with the respect I deserve. Alpha Kitties should be worshipped - including by ourselves!" Ok, GOTCHA.
When Do You Feel Most Beautiful? [ToosSpace]
Still more Dow Jones action! The big news: The board, "frustrated with the pace of the Bancroft family's negotiations with News Corp., said it would take over talks on the future of the company." This is viewed as a sign that Rupert Murdoch is going to get what he wants: "Because the Dow Jones board is obliged to pursue the best result for all shareholders, the handoff makes the $5-billion offer from Murdoch's News Corp. harder to beat for potential rivals."
Serendipitous meetups and I-know-you-so-well moves look so good in romantic comedies, so why have I been served so many restraint orders? Search and social sites have gotten sophisticated enough that I can pull off a good John Cusack boombox-over-the-head scene with your favorite song — on date one. Here's how I can find out everything about you online.
A tipster reports that Graydon Carter recently requested that staffers make him a MySpace page. Folks at the magazine, however, claim it's a prank. Which makes sense, because does Graydon Carter know what the Internet is? Yeah, he sort of does, but only in vague terms. Sort of like a manatee explaining shellfish reproduction! So we wondered whether we would finally learn the secrets of the man with the famously akimbo hair. Would he have a photo of himself in his trademark double-breasted blue blazer with the shiny gold buttons? And what, pray tell, would his general interests be?
We have to apologize for not informing you sooner about the startling innovation that our beloved 'Toos has added to her MySpace queendom: 40-second long clips of her on-camera insights. She's mastering another platform every time we turn around, it seems! Sort of. Here, she explains why being into fashion doesn't make you shallow (for the record, it's because "fashion is a costume... I mean, all the world's a play").
This week's Time magazine is full of all kinds of goodies! Apart from a front-of-the-book piece by Norman Pearlstine calling for a federal shield law to protect journalists (presumably so that Time doesn't have to bend over for prosecutors again) there are two essays by Joel Stein (who, you'll recall, is a god to people in their twenties and thirties). The first one—part of the issue's package on why we eat what we eat—describes Joel's 48-hour Master Cleanse fast. Joel gets hungry! And cold! And tosses off a couple of easy Jew jokes! It's Joel Stein like you've never seen him before, unless you've ever seen him even once.
Now that every presidential candidate has a MySpace page, "News Corp. will soon be able to track and monitor online donations made to presidential candidates." The Financial Times notes that goo-goo types are raising questions about whether or not donations given through individual candidate pages make MySpace a "bundler." The company shrugs off both concerns:
Eric Schaeffer is so over. We decided to try to find a lady who could take over for him as World's Worst Person. And we found her! On MySpace, of course.
Crushing disappointment alert, Alpha Kitties: Atoosa Rubenstein may want to help you, but she's not about to actually, like, help you.
A reader recently received an unsolicited friend request from:
NICK DOUGLAS — The GigaOM blog yet again cuts through the bull, this time about online social networks, with a story extolling Gaia Online. The underhyped online site for kids and teens claims 300,000 daily unique visitors spending an average of two hours a day on the site. (Hitwise says MySpacers spend about 30 minutes each.) I spent at least that during some college days (shut up); it was an addicting forum. But it's now an immersive little world — it feels like playing Paper Mario — that rewards regular users with virtual money and accessories for their avatars. (Inflation turns long-time users into millionaires, though Gaia money can't be exchanged for real cash.) Gaia used these incentives to run a promotion for the film The Last Mimzy, getting over 10% of their users to participate. Those kinds of results beat MySpace's 50-cent-per-thousand banner ads and Second Life's microeconomy to hell. Of course, Gaia doesn't have to compete with these sites, since it's sufficiently different than both (halfway between, actually). It'd be hard to kill this company. A shame for would-be buyers that this growing company seems so self-sufficient.
NICK DOUGLAS — It's springtime for Hitler on the Internet as erupts (okay, continues as usual) in war. Let's run through who's been stomping on whom (MySpace on Photobucket, the rapaciously opinionated blogosphere on Kathy Sierra), and whether any of the aggressors have been brought to justice. (Hint: no.)
Hello, and welcome to the stream—make that majestic gushing river— of former Seventeen editor Atoosa Rubenstein's consciousness. Today, you might want to wear your life preserver! "What a week, huh? And the media has been making it worse! All the airings of the killer's video were just pouring salt into the wound of our nation. I can't imagine how the families of the victims felt. My heart is with them forever. But my beef with the media extends beyond their coverage of the tragedy. What did you think about the Alec Baldwin voicemail message that's been going around the internet?" Whoa, hold onto your oars! We're about to make a hairpin turn towards some even choppier waters.
