Why would a Fox News SVP call Facebook “the leading social network”?
Weird news item #1: Fox News is expanding its presence on Facebook
Fox News Channel, which is part of the same company (News Corporation) as MySpace, is expanding its social networking presence on MySpace’s leading social networking competition, Facebook. The New York Times speculates that the reason may be due to MySpace’s “existing partnership with MSNBC.
Weird news item #2: Fox News SVP claims Facebook is bigger than MySpace
It’s one thing to branch out to a social network that might be more geared to your demographic. Joel Cheatwood, senior vice president for development at Fox News, rightly points out that Facebook’s audience tends to be “a little older and a little more sophisticated” as compared to MySpace.
And it’s another for the “real reason” to potentially be MySpace’s deal with MSNBC. But why would Cheatwood go on to say that “Facebook is ‘currently the leading social network’ worldwide”?
Even if it were true, wouldn’t that be the kind of claim that you wouldn’t want to make about a major competitor to one of News Corp’s highest profile properties?
As always, take it with barrels of salt, but Alexa pegs Facebook as the #5 ranked website on the Internet, with MySpace trailing at #7.
