News Corp. COO: 'Scarcity' key to online advertising

For Internet publishers to make the big money from online advertising, they need to manufacture a little scarcity, much like the television business. That's the current thinking of News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin, who said at a conference that there's just too much inventory on the Internet for advertising to sell for high rates. "We have to create category scarcity. That category these days is video," Chernin said. More specifically, he said, premium online video will deliver the high ad rates. That's why News Corp. has invested heavily over the last year in MySpace TV, one of the top video sites in the United States, as well as Hulu.com, a destination for television programming and feature films, Chernin said. News Corp. is also working on about 10 Web-only shows to premiere online. Also, next up for video will be MySpace Music, he said.