±±¾©Èü³µpk10

News Corp hopes to keep the commercial arm of the social network on track by appointing .Fox Networks to handle advertising sales in the UK.

Up to 80% of the UK staff are likely to lose their current jobs, although it is hoped some people on the content side can be absorbed into the international team and that some sales employees can transfer into .Fox.

Yesterday, it was revealed that MySpace chief executive .

Jones today confirmed the mass reductions in head count and a number of "strategic local partnerships" for MySpace in the UK, Autralia and Germany to manage advertising sales and content. Fox Network has been confirmed in the UK and conversations in Germany and Australia are ongoing.

Jones said: "MySpace will retain a core, dedicated international team to work with partners in order to ensure users, content partners and advertisers continue to be served."

The .Fox Network, the online division of Fox International Channels, already manages advertising and local MySpace sites in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Poland and Turkey, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India.

• Read more at Think BR:

IGN Entertainment, the gaming and men’s lifestyle media company that is part of Fox Interactive Media alongside MySpace, will assume control of its own ad sales.

A spokesperson for IGN Entertainment UK, which operates the brands IGN.com and AskMen.com, said: "IGN Entertainment UK confirms it will assume full control of sales operations and to double dedicated commercial staff.

"As the market-leader in entertainment and men’s lifestyle media online, IGN Entertainment properties reach 3.8m readers a month and recent commercial deals include campaigns for Apple, Energizer and Paco Rabanne."

in an attempt to shift away from social networking and play to its relative strengths in content and encourage users to share and recommend music, film and TV programmes.

Jones said: "Today’s tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability. These changes were driven by issues related to our legacy business and in no way reflect the performance of the new Myspace.

"We are also committed to rebuilding the company with an entrepreneurial culture and an emphasis on technical innovation. The new organizational structure will enable us to move more nimbly, develop products more quickly, and attain more flexibility on the financial side."

News Corp bought MySpace in 2005 in a $580m deal. Its popularity peaked in 2007 but it has since suffered from the rise of other networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Speculation has been mounting about what News Corp planned for MySpace after when presenting group results in November 2010.

Quarterly losses in News Corporation's "other" segment, which includes the Digital Media Group, increased by 23.8% year on year.

Social networking sites in the UK (000s of Unique Visitors)

Source: UKOM/Nielsen (From Oct 2006, Nielsen implemented a methodology change. Trend comparison between figures before and after this date should be treated with caution. Data for the months of Feb-Oct 2010 is being reprocessed. Consequently, figures may be lower than any restated figures)