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MySpace to Host Presidential Town Hall Series

Posted on: Thursday, 10 May 2007, 09:00 CDT

MySpace, the world's most popular lifestyle portal, today announced plans to host a Presidential Town Hall series to be held on college campuses from September through December. Each Town Hall will create an intimate, hour long dialogue between one Presidential candidate and the MySpace community while viewers at home submit questions via MySpace instant messenger and watch live via MySpace webcast.

"This won't be the stale debate format with one moderator getting canned answers to the same old questions," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace. "Our users will have the chance to get direct answers to the questions they want to ask -- unfiltered."

Candidates participating in MySpace's Presidential Town Hall include:

Sen. Sam Brownback (www.myspace.com/sambrownback) Sen. Hillary Clinton (www.myspace.com/HillaryClinton) Sen. Chris Dodd (www.myspace.com/senatordodd) Former Sen. John Edwards (www.myspace.com/johnedwards) Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (www.myspace.com/joinrudy2008) Rep. Duncan Hunter (www.myspace.com/duncanhunter) Sen. John McCain (www.myspace.com/johnmccain) Sen. Barack Obama (www.myspace.com/barackobama) Rep. Ron Paul (www.myspace.com/ronpaul2008) Gov. Bill Richardson (www.myspace.com/richardsonforpresident) Former Gov. Mitt Romney (www.myspace.com/mittromney) Former Gov. Tommy Thompson (www.myspace.com/tommythompson08)

"We're welcoming candidates into the MySpace living room," said Tom Anderson, president of MySpace. "Unlike living rooms in the primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, ours holds millions of people wanting to get to know these candidates."

The news of the MySpace Town Halls comes on the heels of the recently announced Presidential Primary to be held virtually on the site, January 1 & 2, 2008. Additionally this month, MySpace will be launching a series of monthly straw polls, gauging where the candidates stand in the run-up to the January primary.

In March, MySpace launched the Impact channel, a community designed to empower politicians, non-profits, and civic organizations to connect with users around the world. As its online hub for the 2008 elections, the Impact channel now houses all of the major party Presidential candidates' official MySpace pages, all of which can be found through the Impact channel (http://impact.myspace.com).

According to third party metrics, the majority of MySpace's users are of voting age and have a higher engagement rate for civic and social activity when compared to other Internet users. For example, comScore Media Metrics(a) reports that nearly 65 million Americans visit MySpace every month and that more than 85% of them are of voting age. Nielsen//NetRatings reports that MySpace users 18-years of age or older are nearly three times more likely than average Web users to interact online with a public official or candidate. Additionally, Nielsen//NetRatings reports that MySpace users are 42% more likely to view online video relating to politics or public affairs, 35% more likely to research politics and campaign information online, and 44% more likely to listen to online audio/radio related to politics/ public affairs.

Times and locations for the MySpace Presidential Town Halls will be announced in the coming weeks.

About MySpace

MySpace, a Fox Interactive Media company, is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums, MySpace has created a connected community. As the second ranked destination in terms of page views(a), MySpace is the most widely-used and highly regarded site of its kind and is committed to providing the highest quality member experience. MySpace will continue to innovate with new features that allow its members to express their creativity and share their lives, both online and off. MySpace's international network includes localized community sites in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Canada, and New Zealand and Latin America.

(a) Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, March 2007. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to http://www.comscore.com.

Source: Business Wire

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