News Corp.'s Jon Miller: Not Afraid to Take Chances

With the appointment of Jon Miller to head its digital operations, News Corp. has found a guy who is not afraid to take a chance or two, and at a time when its flagship digital property, MySpace, is struggling to find new ways to generate revenue — and all media companies are trying to build out a better digital model — that’s a good thing.

At AOL, Miller presided over several attempts at a workable business model. The one that stuck was his 2006 decision to scuttle the Time Warner unit’s subscription model , which led to the unit’s acquisition of, among other things, Advertising.com; it’s a model that AOL still follows today. It may be hard to remember how startling that was for AOL, even if most of the companies it competed with had always been almost wholly ad-supported. Under Bob Pittman, who Miller followed, the online service practically printed money, simply by upping the monthly fee for dial-up subs every now and again.

Miller’s first AOL turnaround plan can’t have been more different than his last. Within a few months after his 2002 arrival, Miller tried an HBO-like subscription model called AOL Broadband. (Ancient story written by yours truly!) Its premise was to give users who already had broadband access exclusive content for a low, low $14.95/month. Maybe that seems odd now, but at the time, the content-is-meant-to-be-free cabal was ill-formed, there were signs the dial-up business might erode and the pressure was on to monetize all of that great Time Warner digital content.

Given the differences in those two models, you could accuse Miller of letting his business models be subject to whatever way the wind was blowing at the time. But, in a rapidly-changing digital landscape, it may be more important to embrace change, and be willing to scuttle long-held beliefs in how the digital model should work in favor of ones with more promise.

On a more personal note, a few years back, just prior to his leaving AOL, I moderated a panel featuring Miller and an agency media executive. What struck me immediately was how disarming he was; clearly this was not a man who was particularly impressed with his title. During a humbling time, that quality will serve him well.