News Corp to Integrate Fox Audience Network With MySpace

Following the departure of Fox Audience Network President Adam Bain, News Corp has announced it now intends to merge that business with its MySpace unit, integrating both its ad technology platform and staff into the social network.

According to a memo sent to staff and published by PaidContent, Jon Miller, Chairman and CEO of Digital Media at News Corp, said after considering a sale of the unit, the company had decided instead to put FAN's technology to use across its own property. "We ultimately decided that the best path for FAN - and for News Corp - is to put this leading-edge technology to work to benefit our existing assets" he wrote. "By aligning the FAN platform directly with MySpace, we will be able to utilize its services to further drive MySpace’s revenue efforts and to play a key part of the site’s planned re-launch later this year."

Twitter today announced it had appointed FAN President Bain as its own president of revenue, and a reference to Bain in a News Corp press release suggests his departure may have played a significant part in its decision to fold the unit back into MySpace.

News Corp did not reply to requests for comment, or to questions regarding potential redundancies or staffing changes as a result of the integration of the two units. Given that the two units overlap in areas such as ad sales, it seems likely that some costs could be cut as a result of the merger.

Meanwhile, MySpace's U.S. audience continues to fall drastically as users defect to sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and its ad revenue is suffering as a result.