Interactive Media Holdings, the owner of MySpace and digital ad companies Specific Media, Vindico, and Xumo has named Jon Schulz as its first chief marketing officer. The company, run by brothers Tim and Chris Vanderhook, filled four other new C-suite positions this week in a bid to transform the company into a “comprehensive provider of complete digital media solutions,” according to a press release.
The Vanderhooks purchased MySpace—the Internet’s original social media darling—for $35 million from News Corp in 2011. With additional backing from Justin Timberlake, the brothers have been attempting to revive the site as a music service competitor to Spotify and Pandora.
Just this week, at the Wall Street Journal Digital Conference in Laguna Beach, CA, News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch admitted his company dropped the ball with MySpace, which it had acquired for $508 million in 2005. “We just messed it up,” Murdoch said, adding that MySpace was about to start a video service ahead of Google’s YouTube, but that he took bad advice and “put in a layer of bureaucracy.”
As CMO, Schulz (left) will lead brand and product marketing, as well as new business development and strategic partnerships. The former head of digital marketing and CRM at Ford Motor Company joined Specific Media in 2008 as head of its global automotive business.
Other appointments announced this week by IMH were Jeff Collins as chief revenue officer, Jason Knapp as chief product officer, and Linh Chung as chief information officer.
