Advertisement

Four months later, Hirschhorn exits MySpace

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The management turmoil continues at struggling MySpace, as the fading social network has shed another top executive.

Former MTV executive Jason Hirschhorn is out as co-president, a job he took only four months ago. His departure continues a wave of management disruptions at MySpace that saw the ouster in February of Chief Executive Owen Van Natta, who had held the top spot for less than a year. Van Natta had been brought in to replace founding CEO Chris DeWolfe in April 2009.

Advertisement

Corporate parent News Corp. called Hirschhorn’s departure a ‘personal decision.’

‘As many people know, Jason is like family to me, and as expected, he’s done everything we asked of him and more,’ said News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller, in a statement. ‘We’re incredibly grateful for the passion and enthusiasm he brought to the company.’

Co-president Mike Jones will remain in his role at the company, Miller said. Jones was named co-president at the same time as Hirschorn.

‘Mike Jones has done an outstanding job leading MySpace into its next evolution and is the right person to take the reins,’ Miller said in the same statement. ‘There are no plans to bring in additional management.’

Even as it gears up for a relaunch later this year, struggling social network MySpace is losing ad revenue and traffic at a rapid clip

Global unique visitors to MySpace have slid to 111 million in April from 127 million a year earlier, according to research firm ComScore. Global visits to Facebook during the same time frame jumped to 519 million from 307 million. On Twitter, Hirschhorn wrote: “Yes i am moving back to NYC. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. I believe in MySpace, its leader Jonesy and its wonderful team.”

-- Jessica Guynn and Dawn C. Chmielewski

Advertisement