Rupert Murdoch's News International's parent group News Corp., which bought online social network MySpace in 2005 for $508 million, is expected to integrate the popular social networking site with its newspaper properties, writes U.K.-based Journalism (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Murdoch, who was initially skeptical of the internet, now thinks online media operations are fundamental to the survival of publishing.

News International - which publishes The Times, Sunday Times, The Sun, News of the World and the Times Literary Supplement - plans to expand its online communities investments and is in the early stages of hiring an online community editor, who will create new topic forums gather user-generated content from readers.

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U.K. Paper to Hook up with MySpace