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# 5 Tough Lessons Former CEO Mike Jones Learned From MySpace
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/5-lessons-learned-on-the-job-by-myspaces-most-recent-former-ceo/
- Published: 2011-10-28T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2011-10-28T12:00:00.000Z
- Description: Michael Jones spent the last two years at MySpace, first as co-president and then as CEO, attempting to turn the company around. Despite a wide range of changes the relaunch. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/10/5-lessons-learned-on-the-job-by-myspaces-most-recent-former-ceo.htm
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Social Media, michael jones, MySpace, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 10:55

[![Michael-jones](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e2015392a31ef4970b-200wi "Michael-jones")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e2015392a31ef4970b-popup?ref=hypebot.com)

****Michael Jones spent the last two years at MySpace, first as co-president and then as CEO, attempting to turn the company around. Despite a wide range of changes the relaunch never quite worked and Jones left in August as new owners took over. Now he shares the lessons he learned.**

When Michael Jones took what probably seemed like a very bad job as co-president at MySpace, ultimately becoming CEO and overseeing the last turnaround attempt, many people wondered why he'd do such a thing. In a piece [written for Fortune](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/24/mike-jones-myspace/?ref=hypebot.com), Jones stated, "I wanted to know if it could be done — if we could revive a legacy Internet brand that had so many challenges."

Though he did help improve the site and streamline operations from which [new owners Specific Media](https://www.hypebot.com/official-myspace-sale-announcement-press-release-full-text/) will benefit, he was not able to fully engineer a successful relaunch. Here are the "five lessons \[he\] learned from the front":

**1\. Consumers have long brand memories.**

"In the end, I believe Myspace would have had a better chance for success if we had relaunched it as an entirely new brand."

**2\. Utility outlasts entertainment.**

"Myspace's entertainment value, with its optional anonymity and its entertainment-focused interest graph, never achieved the same level of utility for consumers \[as did Facebook with its social graph\]."

**3\. Perceived momentum = perceived value.**

"As of August 2010, Myspace was interacting with over 100 million users a month, generating billions of page views and streaming hundreds of millions of songs. Yet…the market value for Myspace was far below the value placed on many other smaller, yet similar, businesses."

**4\. Change within large organizations must be centered around drastic actions.**

"It was only through major change, a full disruption to the system, that we were able to galvanize the organization around new goals and begin seeing increased efficiencies."

**5\. Single front door = single point of failure.**

"A single front door \[to one big site\] means there is a single point of failure in consumers' minds — even when the product lines behind it are robust."

**Hypebot Readers: Did Michael Jones learn the right lessons or will his interest in "study\[ing\] how a large media property works from the inside out" lead him to launch a future failure?**

*Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. He currently maintains a writing hub at [Flux Research](http://www.fluxresearch.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and periodically blogs at [All World Dance](http://www.allworlddance.com/?ref=hypebot.com) and [This Business of Blogging](http://www.thisbusinessofblogging.com/?ref=hypebot.com). To suggest music services and related topics for review at Hypebot, please contact:*

clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com

.