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Friday, October 9, 2009

Exclusive: MySpace Gets a New Sales Boss–MTV Vet Nada Stirratt (Plus, an Internal Memo, Of Course!)

Nada_Stirratt

Employees at News Corp.’s MySpace have been waiting to find out who their new ad sales boss will be. And, here she is: Nada Stirratt, who until today was running digital sales for Viacom’s MTV Networks.

Stirratt has her work cut out for her. The struggling social networking site, HQed in Beverly Hills, has been trying to reboot its image, spur innovation in its product and, most of all, pull itself out of a too-long slump, even as longtime rival, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook, has seen explosive growth.

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Vevo, Universal Music’s Hulu for Video, Gets a Salesman

vevo-logoVevo, the music industry’s attempt to create a Hulu-like hub for its videos, is going to attract a lot of eyeballs when it launches later this year. Here’s the guy who’s supposed to attract advertisers: David Kohl, a former Nokia executive who starts work today as the site’s sales boss.

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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Viacom Lays Off 850, Takes $450 Million Charge

Viacom’s long-rumored cuts are here. The cable network is firing 850 people–seven percent of its workforce–and will take a charge of up to $450 million. It says the cuts will save it up to $250 million next year. The cuts will go into effect this month and will be spread throughout the company. Click through for the official release, as well as internal memos from CEO Philippe Dauman and MTV Networks CEO Judy McGrath.

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Monday, November 3, 2008

MySpace Campaigns for Ad Dollars–Will It Have to Come Clean After the Election?

MySpace pushes a pretend candidate to New York publishers and ad agencies. But the company’s real results come a day after election day: On Wednesday, parent company News Corp. will have to tell investors how the giant Web site’s ad sales are performing.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

MTV: Just Ignore That Nice New Video Site We Rolled Out Yesterday

The folks at MTV.com explain what they’re up to with MTV Music, the nifty video archive site they quietly rolled out yesterday.

Odd explanation: They really haven’t rolled out the site. And they don’t ever really plan to do so.

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About Peter

Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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