• The New York Times, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 11:15 AM

Fox News Channel has decided to join Facebook instead of MySpace, the social network owned by its parent company, News Corporation. Why would Fox News do such a thing? The New York Times suggests that it might have to do with MySpace's recent partnership with MSNBC, but Fox says it has more to do with audience.

Indeed, Facebook recently surpassed MySpace as the world's leading social network. "They also have a user that's a little older and a little more sophisticated," said Joel Cheatwood, the senior vice president for development at Fox News.

As part of its push, Fox designed a video player that lets users watch Fox videos, create customized playlists, post videos to their profiles and share clips with their fellow Facebook friends. Fox isn't alone in its efforts to reach social networking users. MSNBC recently partnered with MySpace on a contest to send two users to the national political conventions. ABC and Facebook also teamed up to create a politics section for the presidential primaries, but have since suspended the site.

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