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MySpace On Life Support?

Poor MySpace. Once a digital darling courted by industry kings, the site has since lost its way under the reign of Facebook. In what many are interpreting as another nail in its coffin, News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller has fired MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta -- brought on less than a year ago to revive the drifting network.

"While News Corp. tried to paint the departure as more mutual in its official statement, it was most definitely not, as problems among top execs finally came to a head today," assures BoomTown's Kara Swisher. "Among the issues were tensions between Miller and Van Natta, as well as growing tensions with his top two execs, COO Mike Jones and Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn."

Notes The Hollywood Reporter: "The news comes after reports of style differences between him and other top executives at the social networking site."

Under the headline, "MySpace, R.I.P.," Om Malik now consider the site to be among "the living dead," adding, "Rupert Murdoch's $580 million MySpace purchase has outlived not only its utility, but has also finally hit its expiration date."

Since Van Natta's arrival, MySpace has undergone a radical refocusing on music, while relinquished its ambitions to rival Facebook. And while those priorities are not expected to change in Van Natta's absence, they "apparently didn't save the property from a poor quarterly showing," notes DigitalBeat. "In News Corp. earnings last week, the company reported that digital media earnings were down $32 million compared to a year earlier."

In Van Natta's defense, the man "inherited a network in steep decline, and with major technological issues," writes Fast Company.

Meanwhile, "Sources close to the European arm of the News Corporation-owned business said that the staff were 'stunned' at the sudden exit," reports the Telegraph.

Suggests Gawker: "Maybe Van Natta can get a job at Google ... We heard they just launched some sort of Twitter thing?"

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