新闻集团网络投资血本无归

    数码媒体领域动荡不安，效力于这类企业的高管们都是“游牧一族”——就算原来不是，也会很快学会这种生活方式。在互联网上创造、管理内容的业务瞬息万变，以至于在其他许多行业显得很短的任期，在数码媒体世界都算得上整个职业生涯了。

    因此，当新闻集团宣布乔纳森•米勒即将离职时——他已担任该集团首席数码官三年，起初看起来不过是另一次高管调动而已。但米勒的去职反映了新闻集团的一个重要事实：该集团正在准备分拆为两家公司，但其中任何一个看起来都与互联网没有任何关系。米勒的离开更是凸显了这个问题。

    很多人认为，米勒在新闻集团的这几年只能说是功过参半。他与苹果（Apple）等公司缔结了更强劲的合作关系，还安排了多项投资，包括新闻集团向互联网驱动型机顶盒制造商Roku投资4,500万美元。但米勒也需要对iPad电子杂志The Daily推出后令人失望的业绩负责，出售MySpace时的凄凉景象他也难逃干系——这个网站仅卖得3,500万美元，远远低于新闻集团希望获得的2亿美元，只有当初收购价5.8亿美元的十六分之一。

    相比其他事态发展，MySpace的灾难性结局鲜明地体现了新闻集团在数码媒体领域的麻烦。在鲁伯特•默多克的想象中，MySpace是一只有魔力的鹅，可以老老实实地坐在鹅舍里生金蛋。可事实证明它只是只普普通通的老母鹅而已。得益于马克•扎克伯格对大多数忠实用户使用体验近乎偏执执着，以及他不断对网站改版、加强使用体验的努力，Facebook得以后来居上。

    Top executives working in the turbulent arena of digital media are nomadic -- or they quickly learn to be. The business of making and managing content on the Internet changes so quickly that a tenure that might be considered brief in many industries is par for the course in digital media.

    So when News Corp. (NWS) announced that Jonathan Miller would be leaving his post as the company's chief digital officer after three years, it seemed at first like another executive shuffle. But Miller's departure says something telling about News Corp. as it prepares to split up into two companies: Neither of the two News Corp-lettesseem to have anything to do with the Internet. And Miller's departure only underscores that.

    Miller's tenure at News Corp. is largely seen as a mixed bag. He forged stronger relationships with companies like Apple (AAPL) and arranged deals like News Corp.'s $45 million investment in Roku, a maker of Internet-powered set-top boxes. But Miller also oversaw the disappointing launch of The Daily, a magazine designed for the iPad, as well as the dismal sale of MySpace for$35 million -- well below the $200 million the company hoped to get and a whopping sixteenth of the $580 million it originally paid.

    More than any other development, the MySpace debacle illustrates the troubles News Corp. has had in digital media. What Rupert Murdoch imagined to be a magical goose that would sit placidly in its own room and lay lots of golden eggs turned out to be just an plain-old layer of eggs. Facebook (FB) prevailed because Mark Zuckerberg obsessed over how his most loyal users were using the site he was relentlessly redesigning to be more useful to them.