It may seem divinely foreordained that MySpace would wither in the shadow of Facebook’s triumph — now — but Tim Arango‘s story suggests that the old social site might have done better without Rupert Murdoch’s idiosyncratic brand of support.

Mr. Murdoch was an early champion of the site and its founders, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. He would have them to his ranch in Carmel, Calif., for long chats about the future of media, and often intervened personally to help them navigate the News Corporation’s hierarchy so decisions could be made quicker, according to a former executive who demanded anonymity so he could maintain his business relationships.

In 2007, when Mr. Murdoch set his sights on Dow Jones and its prize, The Wall Street Journal, his attention was diverted from what had been his obsession, nurturing MySpace.

The calls to Mr. DeWolfe and Mr. Anderson for impromptu beers at a bar near the News Corporation’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters became less frequent, as did Mr. Murdoch’s help in cutting through the bureaucracy.

Another early sign of the culture clash was the News Corporation’s decision — which executives publicly complained about at the time — to move MySpace’s offices from Santa Monica, where employees worked in a loft space and had access to countless restaurants and coffee shops, to a building in Beverly Hills that was originally intended to be a medical facility. There were many fewer restaurants nearby, and employees began leaving work early to eat, and not returning until the next day.

How typically Murdoch, to think that Beverly Hills is cooler than Santa Monica.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 at 10:30 am.