News Corp announced today that Chief Digital Officer, Jon Miller, is leaving next month as the giant company moves forward with its plan to separate into two distinct companies.
Miller, a former CEO of AOL, joined News Corp in 2009 where he was tasked with developing a digital strategy for a diverse set of properties that at the time included everything from MySpace to Photobucket. He was also asked to make digital a priority across the company’s many news and entertainment divisions.
Miller’s parting was amiable, according to All Things D which first reported the story. That sentiment was echoed in a News Corp announcement in which the company said he would stay on as an adviser and CEO Rupert Murdoch praised him as “a visionary in the digital media industry.”
The departure appears to be related to News Corp’s impending split which will result in it placing its lucrative entertainment assets such as Fox and BSkyB into one company and its publishing properties into another.
While presiding over News Corp’s far-flung digital assets, Miller made sensible moves such as off-loading MySpace which the company acquired for $ 580 million in 2005. The divesture was consistent with a statement in News Corp’s annual report that its digital strategy is no longer acquisition based.
Miller’s other activities included supervising News Corp’s $ 45 million investment in streaming device maker Roku, and working with Hulu where he sat on the board.
Miller is also an active angle investor with deep contacts in the media space. He joined us at paidContent to 2012. You can hear his thoughts on digital media here:
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