MySpace moves up the age ladder

Is MySpace getting older and wiser?

Yesterday the News Corp.-owned social networking giant launched their new 'professional content' video service. (This is presumably where the News Corp./NBC Universal video will fit in once it is rolled out this summer.)

Of course most of MySpace's new video partners will be serving the 16-24 user base that makes up the bulk of MySpace members: Kush TV, LX.TV, Ripe TV, Octane TV, Flow, Young Hollywood and VBS.tv will be among the companies supplying content to its new lifestyle and news channels.

But other partners - National Geographic, the New York Times and Reuters - are definitely more synonomous with a distinctly older kind of consumer.

True, one of the sample segments from Reuters will be 'off-beat news stories from around the world' (and won't those be funny!) but there is every possibility that MySpace will tap more of what Reuters is known for--financial data and analysis--as (and if) the partnership develops.

The deal also gives companies like National Geographic and New York Times another way of trying to refresh their own demographic pools, which are of course getting older too.