GIN INC JOURNAL

News Corp.'s struggling social network MySpace said it would lay off nearly 30% of its staff -- or about 425 people -- as part of a plan to restructure the business.

“Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,” said MySpace Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta. “I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product.”

When Rupert Murdoch struck a deal to buy MySpace for $580 million in 2005, he was hailed as a a new media visionary, the mogul who got the Internet. News Corp. had out maneuvered rival Viacom for the site, which so annoyed Sumner Redstone that he pushed out his CEO Tom Freston.

RUPERT Soon after the MySpace deal, Murdoch told Wired Magazine that the Internet "is media's golden age." That's yet to be proven but later in the interview he was a little more prescient. "God knows what we're going to do with MySpace," he said.

Now four years later that's what everyone else is wondering that as well. Facebook has surpassed MySpace as the top social network site in the United States. It has little buzz anymore and its advertising revenue has dropped over the last year. Its groundbreaking $900-million advertising deal with Google ends next year and that revenue will be hard to replace.

Inside News Corp., integrating MySpace into the rest of the spawling media company has proven a challenge. MySpace has never become the platform for News Corp. content that many thought it would be when it acquired the company. MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe often clashed with other executives and left the company last spring, succeeded by Van Natta, Facebook's former chief revenue officer.

Bringing MySpace back to the top may be a steep challenge for Van Natta and Jonathan Miller, News Corp.'s new chief digital officer. Unlike television where everyone is one hit away from returning glory, social network sites that start to fade tend to keep fading. Anyone remember Friendster?

Wikipedia has signed its first major corporate partnership, a revenue sharing deal with mobile operator Orange that will put branded Wikipedia content on Orange phones.

he Wikimedia Foundation has signed its first major corporate partnership deal with European mobile operator Orange. Under the agreement, Orange customers in France, Span, Poland, and the UK will get co-branded access to Wikimedia Foundation content, including a specific Wikipedia channel and both mobile and Web-based widgets to pull Wikipedia content to their mobile devices or Web pages. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Orange will be sharing some revenue with the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation currently gets most of its operating capital from user donations.

"The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to spreading knowledge to as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible," said Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner, in a statement. "Orange's leadership in mobile and focus on innovation makes them an ideal partner to help us extend our reach."

The Wikimedia Foundation has turned down approaches from corporate entities before, and claims it wouldn't be open to letting commercial enterprises tap into their user communities or commerce-enable something like a Wikipedia page. However, corporate partnerships are apparently on the table for companies that aim to extend knowledge to everyone. A second phase of the partnership will apparently explore creating "simple but innovative" services drawing on Orange's complete portfolio of communications services, including potentially leveraging Wikipedia content to Orange's IPTV platform.

There's no denying that Apple's App Store has been wildly popular amongst iPhone and iPod touch users—"Shaking Baby" applications aside—and that Microsoft, RIM, Palm, Nokia, and others are all looking to emulate Apple's success with application stores of their own. Just to underscore how far they have to catch up, however, Apple has announced that customers have downloaded over 1 billion programs from its App Store since it launched a little over nine months ago.

"The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we'd like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded," said Apple senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller, in a statement.

The actual downloader of the billionth program was 13-year-old Connor Mulcahey, of Weston, Connecticut: he will receive a MacBook Pro, a Time Capsule backup system, an iPod touch, and a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Apple has previously given out prizes for download milestones from its iTunes music store.

The Apple app store claims to offer more than 35,000 programs in 77 countries, many of which are available for free, with commercial applications tending to run from $1.99 to $9.99, with some exceptions.

Apple is planning to release its iPhone 3.0 operating system this summer, which many industry watchers expect will help solidify the iPhone's strong position in the iPhone market, and may help it further integrate with enterprise and corporate systems, an area where Apple has historically only been a bit player.