By Eric Witherspoon
News Corporation is one of the largest media conglomerates in the
world, following on the heels of AOL Time Warner, Viacom and Disney.
The company is parent to some of the best-recognized brands and widely-used
entertainment services in the world, but its founder and CEO, Rupert
Murdoch, is likely more familiar to the consumer public than the NewsCorp
brand itself.
True to its real world manifestation, NewsCorp's on-line presence
is as non-committal as the company's plain-Jane name.
The NewsCorp web experience opens in a true, blue mood with no flashy
graphics and no other colors. The site features a simple statement:
"Producing and distributing the most compelling news, information
and entertainment to the farthest reaches of the globe." Perhaps
to drive home that point, the page features no fewer than five globes
in different shades of blue.
Navigating within the site only reinforces the staid, conservative
feel of the opening pages. The only hint of fun or entertainment is
the occasional Matt Groenig cartoon character. Marge Simpson appears
next to the words "unprecendented success", while Futurama's
Bender-a klepto-maniacal robot who consumes excessive amounts of alcohol-is
"fiercely competitive." And a click for Investor and Financial
information brings up a smiling Mr. Smithers floating over the words
"strategic investment."
Conspicuously absent from the site is C. Montgomery Burns, the wealthy
and powerful capitalist who manipulates all the little people of Springfield.
(With more time for observation, he may pop up somewhere in the Executive
Management section.)
Quite simply, NewsCorp's site is not an inspiring one, and it's likely
not meant to be. Unlike Disney, which has built a strong, family-friendly
brand that it applies to many of its subsidiaries, NewsCorp seems
to prefer to keep its media properties free from ties to the parent.
How else could they simultaneously promote Fox Kids Network's "The
Magic School Bus" and Rawkus Record's "Smutt Peddler's Porn
Again Tour?"
To get to the "good stuff" you need to leave NewsCorp.com.
Click on any of its media brands and you're usually transported to
a well-designed, dynamic web site that is targeted to a clearly-defined
audience. This is market segmentation at its finest: click the The
Sun Online and read a front-page story about a plague of mice
in the Queen of England's Buckingham Palace kitchen, or click on The
Times of London to read about calls on the Lord Chancellor to
resign over political fundraising problems.
NewsCorp's media properties like Fox, TVGuide, SkyTV, StarTV and
the LA Dodgers each have millions of dollars of equity in brand recognition.
Why screw that up by making consumers realize that one company is
behind it all?
A strong corporate brand can be an albatross in the highly-fragmented
and fast-moving media business. NewsCorp.com is a straightforward
corporate site designed much more for investors and business analysts
than for entertainment consumers.