MySpace CEO to Step Down

pcworld.com – Chris DeWolfe will hand over his CEO title at MySpace, whose growth has stagnated over the past year while the popularity of rival Facebook booms.

In addition, President Tom Anderson is in discussions to take “a new role” in MySpace, parent company News Corp. announced Wednesday.

News Corp. didn’t announce a replacement for DeWolfe, who will remain on the board of MySpace China and act as a strategic advisor to the company.

The announcements come weeks after News Corp. tapped former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller to lead the unit in charge of its Web properties, including MySpace, as the chairman and CEO of News Corp.’s Digital Media Group, as well the company’s chief digital officer.

MySpace, once by far the largest social-networking site in the world, has seen its popularity cool off, while Facebook’s user base grows at a frenetic pace.

In March 2008, the Fox Interactive Media sites, including MySpace, had 88.3 million U.S. unique visitors, a figure that dropped to 85.1 million last month, according to comScore. In that same time period, Facebook’s U.S. unique visitors grew from 36 million to 61.2 million.

Globally, Facebook sped past MySpace last year. In December, Facebook attracted 108.3 million unique visitors worldwide, while MySpace had 81 million, according to Nielsen Online.
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