• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, March 2, 2006

News Corp., parent company of social networking site MySpace, plans to start integrating the site with other News Corp. properties, a company executive said Tuesday at a Merrill Lynch conference.

Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn told investors of a plan to deepen the connection between MySpace, which News Corp. acquired in July for $580 million, and Fox TV. He said that the top 12 "American Idol" contestants will get MySpace profiles, and that MySpace and "American Idol" will direct traffic to each other's Web sites.

One goal of the deeper integration is to increase traffic to MySpace--which currently boasts 55 million registered users, and is growing to the tune of more than 200,000 a day. But the plan also will likely benefit News Corp.'s other properties, wrote Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen.

News Corp. also intends to build an e-commerce platform for MySpace, where members can buy, sell, and trade items, Levinsohn told the conference.

MySpace presently accounts for between 25 and 30 percent of Fox Interactive Media revenue, Levinsohn said. Gaming property IGN, which News Corp. purchased in September for $650 million, also represents about 25 to 30 percent of revenue. Sports network Scout.com, purchased by News Corp.last September for $60 million, accounts for about 20 percent of revenue. Foxnews.com, Foxsports.com, and other Fox properties are responsible for 20 to 25 percent of revenue.