News Corp And LinkedIn? Nope. News Corp and Beliefnet.

Boy, were the rumors off the mark or what?

Though we failed to cover the buzz surrounding the supposed imminent purchase (now debunked) of LinkedIn by News Corp, for the fact that we simply have a finite supply of writers here at Profy and only so many hours in the day in which we are able to happily slave work studiously in front of our screens for you, our readers, we thought it’d be right to put at least a bit of effort in now, however belatedly, and toss you a few words on the matter.

The matter being News Corp’s acquisition of Beliefnet. Not LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s still evidently doing its indie thing. Beliefnet is the one that’s got Murdoch as its new papa.

If we’re honest, it’s not quite clear just why exactly the speculative mill was churning out the News Corp-plus-LinkedIn storyline for the past week or so. The Fox News proprietor, after all, has MySpace, which fits well with the wacky, casual, and somewhat peculiar atmosphere the components of Rupert’s empire reside beneath. News Corp is oddball, right? So’s MySpace. The two kind of go hand in hand, yes?

LinkedIn, though? Not so much a tight fit, I imagine. Sure it’s a valuable piece of the social networking pie, and Murdoch has as of late very clearly signaled a strong desire to get his hand on something very suit-and-tie-ish: his quest for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. But as far as the agenda of the Corp’s “interactive media” division is concerned, it seems (mostly) to be fun and games. Why divert from the main “mission” with a professional-minded service?

Yeah, I don’t know either. Anywho, on to the purchase of Beliefnet.

A site that is essentially a hodgepodge of various theological dialogues, Beliefnet is something of a Sojourners for the Web 2.0 age. Not that it’s a social network. It’s not. It’s like Slate, but with a religious tinge. However, the parallel between Beliefnet and Sojourners is fairly definite. Whereas Sojo was something born of the paper print era (and was/is explicitly Christian in focus), Beliefnet is a wholly Internet-based symposium that concerns itself with today’s pertinent topics involving faith, worship, politics and the societal and cultural clashes, all of which now regularly make their way to the front pages of the world’s most renowned media outlets.

And knowing the basis upon which Beliefnet is built, one might naturally question why News Corp sought to bring it under its wing.

The answer I have for you is a fairly simple one. Beliefnet is popular. It’s arguably the most popular forum for religious discussion on the Web at present. And it’s hardly secret that religion - in all its forms, traditions, judgments, and convictions -has effectively been placed near the top of the list of everyday items we as civilized and globally-aware human beings ponder, converse, and even continuously tussle over – sometimes leading to the inexcusable and reprehensible result of the unnatural loss of life.

Therefore, it’s actually quite sensible that a conglomerate such as News Corp would seek to have as its own such a central avenue for political and religious discourse. Beliefnet is, after all, thought to hold no especial bias toward any one institution, making News Corp appear a neutral benefactor. And, of course, as a result of the purchase, News Corp essential now ends up the owner of a rather critical gateway at very critical time. It’s right in the thick of it, as it were.

And isn’t that where Murdoch feels most at home?