• by Laurie Petersen , October 22, 2007

Internet revenues should reach $1 billion this fiscal year at News Corp., which represents a reduction from last quarter's projection that revenues would exceed $1 billion.

News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch made that assessment during the company's annual meeting last week.

"We're only at the beginning of two of the most profound social and economic trends of our age--globalization and digitalization," Murdoch said, rattling off a few of the company's milestones of the past year.

Fox Interactive Media now reaches more than 160 million people globally, Murdoch said, while the MySpace social network turned profitable for the first time last year. Both the acquisition of Photobucket and purchase of Strategic Data Corp. will help to better monetize its enormous traffic, with benefits fully recognized in the coming year.

On Thursday, News Corp. cut its fiscal 2008 revenue outlook for MySpace to about $750 million from its prior target of over $800 million.

"While other competitors have entered the arena, none of our peers ... (come) close in sheer numbers," Murdoch said at his company's annual shareholders meeting.

MySpace has attracted some 110 million users globally.

Murdoch said he anticipates the acquisition of Dow Jones closing before the end of the year. As part of the digital push accompanying Wsjonline.com, Murdoch said a number of new vertical Internet sites will be launched in addition to enhancements to Factiva and the Wall Street Journal newswires to help serve the global demand from people for up-to-the-minute information about everything that's happening in their industries wherever they are in the world.

"There's a real hunger for financial news with the huge worldwide expansion of business," Murdoch said. "Senior management has formulated a long term plan to integrate the unique products of Dow Jones into [our] overall corporate and digital strategy."