A quietly mind-blowing piece in Warren Communications News (subscription) about the coming scope and influence of Fox News and News Corp.:

Fox's improving ratings will let it sell ads for at least a 3-5% premium in the upcoming upfront sales season, while the performance of Fox News and Internet properties including MySpace will also bolster results, wrote an analyst. Fox's network and TV stations are benefiting from a 14% improvement in ratings, excluding sports, said [Pali Research's] Richard Greenfield. Fox News is expected to get more money from cable operators in carriage fees, adding perhaps $500 million to the firm's bottom line in the next 5 years, he wrote. MySpace could generate 200 million in sales this year, said Greenfield, citing comments from News Corp President Peter Chernin. News Corp could link broadcast programs including American Idol to online properties such as the recently acquired ksolo.com karaoke website, Greenfield wrote: "What makes MySpace really explode in terms of usage...is other media companies feeding content to the MySpace user base, such as Disney."

Cool Financial Times interview with Peter Chernin here, and worth-reading New York Times item on new challenges for MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson here. From the NYT piece: "Rupert Murdoch blew me away," Mr. DeWolfe said. "He really understands what youth is doing today."

Wise men know that the youth demo isn't just important in television news--it's important in any venture that, ultimately, will also drive people sitting in front of their computers to their television sets...for the news.

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