Rupert Murdoch says he doesn’t see a need to distribute programming or other content from News Corp. through Internet portals. “We’re not sure the portal model is the way of the future at all,” says Murdoch, whose company owns MySpace. “People are going straight to the sites.
I am going to have to say this is a smart move for now. Content is king. Online media is like your favorite TV channel or magazine, and people want to go to the source. Advertisers definately view portals differently than niche sites. People want a deeper, richer experience than what a portal provides in my opinion.
Another thing to consider is that a lot of these portals like MSN, Yahoo! etc are using the same content providers like Cnet, Edmunds.com and others. Nothing differentiates them on some fronts. Is that hurting them? I think it could…