Last week, it was announced that MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe was leaving the company, and that former Facebook Chief Operating Officer and Chief Revenue Officer Owen Van Natta would be taking his place.
His second in command has now been confirmed as former AOL executive Michael Jones, who will be taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer at MySpace.
Jones is the founder of Userplane, a video chat service that was acquired by AOL several years ago, PBJ Digital, and Investing.com. Last year, he started content publisher Tsavo Media, which is described as a site that delivers “highly relevant experiences to today’s digital consumers.”
He has held the CEO title at Tsavo, but as he steps up to the COO position at MySpace, he will assume the role of advisor with Tsavo according to Mike Arrington at TechCrunch. “Jones won’t have the same authority in the No. 2 position at the company, but if Van Natta is smart enough to give him room to run it will be a good sign for the company,” he says.
It is no secret that while MySpace continues to have a lot of users, Facebook is growing at a much more rapid pace. I bet even you know somebody that has abandoned their MySpace profile and started concentrating more on Facebook and/or Twitter. I know a few.
Perhaps new leadership in Van Natta and Jones will provide the spark MySpace needs to keep its users around. It will be interesting to see the changes that come about as a result of that leadership.
