MySpace slashes head count by 30 percent

Amid economic woes, stagnant growth, and a management shakeup, onetime social-networking pioneer MySpace has announced that it has cut its head count by slightly under 30 percent in what the company calls a "return to start-up culture." Well, that's a nice way to put it.

Reports had circulated that MySpace would be laying off nearly half its employees in a move that had delayed its relocation to a bigger office space in the Los Angeles area. With the layoffs, MySpace's full-time U.S. employee roster will be down to 1,000 people--which means somewhere just south of 500 jobs were cut.

MySpace said that the layoffs are evenly distributed across all U.S. divisions of the company. Since MySpace also operates a number of offices overseas, it's not yet clear how they were affected (if at all), and representatives declined comment as to whether international offices would be affected down the road. CNET News has heard rumors that there may be consolidation in some of MySpace's European offices, something that the company did late last year when it merged its Amsterdam and Berlin offices.

"Today the domestic restructure is the only info we can share," a MySpace representative said in a phone call Tuesday.

Owen Van Natta, CEO of the News Corp.-owned social site, said in a release: "Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company. 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."

Van Natta, the former chief operating officer at Facebook, was hired as CEO of MySpace late in April after a short stint at the head of start-up Project Playlist. Former CEO Chris DeWolfe had stepped down earlier that month, reportedly at the behest of Jonathan Miller, the new digital czar at News Corp. Executive shakeups at MySpace had been happening sporadically for nearly a year at that point.

MySpace's new executive lineup gives it solid entertainment street cred: Van Natta was joined by former MTV digital exec Jason Hirschhorn and former AOLer Michael Jones. Late last year, another MTV digital-media executive, Courtney Holt, joined MySpace as the head of its new MySpace Music division.

A source with knowledge of the situation said that senior management was spared Tuesday's cuts.

Launching MySpace Music, which focuses on free streaming music supported by advertising, was a return to the company's roots: once a hub for indie band promotion and community, MySpace had grown massive before Facebook began to catch up to it in international and then U.S. traffic. Partnerships with the likes of Google and a prominent endorsement of the OpenSocial developer initiative didn't help it regain traction as a networking destination.

Holt told CNET News in March that MySpace Music's traffic was "huge." But record label executives--who are partners in the MySpace Music joint venture--reported dissatisfaction with the revenue it was generating.

Last update at 11:56 a.m. PT.

[eeee]

typical of anything to do with Fox.
Murdoch owns News Corp and Fox and we know his attitude to anything that is not BIG BUSINESS and anti worker benefits.
-Funny how he spins it as if these layoffs are the worker's fault " our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," Owen Van Natta, CEO of the News Corp.-owned social site, said in a release
- what a great spin but that goes on all day on all Murdoch owned media

[renGek]

yeah just like yahoo. As soon as traditional management took over they turned the company into a traditional profit model. Which means no more innovating and just earn predictable income quarter over quarter so that the share prices can go up. They have absolutely no clue how to innovate so other companies like google passes them by and they can't figure out whats going on so they fire their entire staff of talented people keep the marketing idiots. Then we end up with a society of package goods that are shiny and pretty but don't do anything worthwhile.

[fgsdfgdsfgdsfg]

When a company isn?t profitable, a company has to lay people off to remain or regain profitability. It is a sad but true fact in business. If you don?t agree, start your own business and hire a 1000 people more than what you need. Then tell me how long you stay in business.

[mikehill33]

Big media stopped innovating and the experience went stale.

That and the countless spammers/scammers on there = Facebook FTW.

[badasscat]

"A source with knowledge of the situation said that senior management was spared Tuesday's cuts."

Of course. Who could have guessed that would be the case?

No matter the fact that one senior manager commands the salary of probably five average regular employees, and does approximately half the work of any one of them.

[freddy_ace]

do u really need 1500+ people to run a social networking site?

[stigmattaman]

Agreed. It's always sad to see people lose their jobs, particularly during a recession, but the company did seem bloated. Still, senior management deserved some of the cuts as well, and hopefully they'll turn it around and do something innovative. Look for them to play hard in the mobile space.

[shootfirst]

I think its criminal that they even need anywhere near 1000. I guess they have to keep people on to make fake myspace pages. Also offices in other countries?? I bet half of the employees are there to fix pages when crap gets hacked as both myspace and facebook are piles of trash. Least its not as bad as twitter.

[stepyourgameup]

Myspace should have never let facebook pass them by.

[agriffith96]

They really need to go back to what they do best. Showcasing bands and music. They still have the upperhand in that department against facebook. It's pretty much all myspace is good for.

[CaptainComet]

My wife and I looked at MySpace, but went with facebook, as did our kids and most of our relatives. Even my sister who, in her fifties, and just started using computers, had no problems using facebook. MySpace seems a little to lurid and oriented to a more trashy lifestyle.

[cyclonica1980]

Myspace was cool, when I was in middle school and High School. The main thing that made me leave myspace was the ads and the 13-15 year old girls posing half naked, and claiming they were 18. They wonder why they cannot keep the pedophiles off these social network sites...

Facebook is much better. I feel its more aimed toward a mature user base. No flashy backgrounds, no garbage, and Facebook is much more stricter on its policy regarding nudity and inappropriate pics. Its also much easier to use, and the networking tools make it much easier to find people, and communicate. Myspace needs a massive cleanup if they plan to catch up with the rest of these social network sites. Heck even Twitter is better almost now.

[gertruded]

Fox killed Myspace, just like any other big corporate business model in the modern American tradition.

If we can not get some control of the big American corporations we are all doomed. They all self destruct in order to make more short term money for executives and speculators., but certainly not for long term investors or employees).

[cvaldes1831]

I hope they don't cut Tom.

He's my only friend.

[Goblinone]

Sorry Tom, I,m not going to miss you.

He was my only friend when I recently signed up with Myspace. I was really excited about the possibility of meeting all these exciting people. Then I got a message from a beautiful girl in California who wanted to be my friend. I responded to her link and found direct access to what I will politely call an "adult entertainment site". I was tempted to go there and soon regretted the experience. Suddenly, I had more friends than just Tom, but I didn't like them. Then I read Tom's profile and didn't like him either. So I tried to delete my account but ended up on an endless loop of resubmitting my information and re-signing in to be able to vacate my Myspace. It just became too confusing and time wasting, so I just deleted all my friends and my profile. It was not a pleasant experience and I will never go there again. I hope this comment will help others make a sensible decision.

[catnett]

I totally agree with agriffith96 on the need to focus on music, where myspace still dominates. They really need to get around to improving page loading as well; that's something they still haven't figured out after all these years.

[paulimusmaximus]

Good, I always hated myspace. The way most people laid out their pages was terrible, and as soon as you sign up, all these spammers try to be your friend, or just write crap on your wall. It's garbage.

[Don Key]

Myspace is the new Friendster. There is nothing they can do to get people back. They got fat and bloated and stopped caring and let every one on the site turn their page into something a 12 year old would be proud of.

I can't even remember the last time I logged in and I'm super close to deleting my account. They had the world and they let it slip through their fingers.

[Mr. Dee]

If 'My Space' wasn't so ugly maybe it wouldn't have to cut 30% of its staff.

[rrod182]

MySpace sucks, its one giant place holder for ads. The interface is irritating at best.

[i9998217]

Ok

[JoshuaD1957]

Doesn't look good or trustworthy for a NEW company to already be slashing it's work force... are these people going to be replaced by foreign workers for less $$ Why do we need foregin workers to answer phones for major companies like T-Mobile anyway? Most can not speak our English well and you go round and round until you are so dizzy trying to explain what you need... bring American jobs home! If a company takes their work force to overseas than it's time we Americans use our god given brain and STOP DOING BUSINESS WITH THEM! ME! ME! ME! in this country... think about someone else for a change. The people who are losing their jobs. Boycott and bankrupt these companies and maybe we won't be treated as disposible trash. We bring this on ourselves. Keep using the self checkout lines in stores. You are putting someone out of a job.

[NeoTropicalus]

I really fail to see how this comment about T-mobile has any relevence.

[Tomofumi]

From the end user's point of view, maintain a facebook page is much easier than a myspace page....most myspace page i come across just full of large fonts, stupid flashs, and photos....

[12three_s]

there will always be middle school & high school kids on myspace. as teens we need everything to be entertainment. the little girls saying they're 18... they could do that anywhere. ugly profiles? yes, some people have bad taste. i personaly think facebook has bad taste. i'm thinking bout being a web designer, i personally keep my profile looking it's best. some of my friends too. it somewhat lets some people (who use it right) be unique & not have a plain white profile. & yeah, it's non profit. & yeah, you need a LOT of people to keep myspace runing. after all, we're always asking for more. stinks bout the lay offs, they should have known it was a gamble. NONPROFIT <-- the website is broke. i wouldn't expect a pay check for that. yeah, people grow out of it.. but some don't & others are just getting into it. get over it, not liking myspace is an opinion. everything on here (except for TONS of ppl getting layed off) is opinions. & ppls opinions differ.