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Murdoch Gets Religion

Nat Worden

News Corp. (NWS Quote) has found religion online.

Rupert Murdoch's global media empire announced Tuesday that it has acquired Beliefnet, the largest faith and spirituality information site on the Web, for an undisclosed sum.

Beliefnet will become part of Fox Digital Media, which consists mostly of News Corp.'s popular social networking site, MySpace. The move looks like part of News Corp.'s efforts to expand its vast media reach onto the Internet, where Wall Street sees the best growth opportunities for media conglomerates.

"Beliefnet has garnered respect for its commitment to quality, editorial strength and unbiased approach to faith and spirituality from a broad range of consumers, religious and political leaders, journalists and advertisers," said Fox Digital Media President Don Fawcett in a press release. "Fox's goal is to leverage these characteristics across a broader media canvas and provide programming, production, advertising sales, technology and marketing expertise that will enhance an already terrific product in a rapidly growing market."

Faith and spirituality content is a growing business as consumers look for deeper meaning in their lives. News Corp. cited the Pew Internet Project as saying that over 82 million Americans and 64% of all Internet users look to the Web for faith-related matters.

Moreover, a division of Marketresearch.com put the demand for religious and spiritually oriented materials like books, DVDs, software, etc. at well beyond $8 billion, News Corp. said.

"Fox Entertainment Group's vast resources will enable Beliefnet to expand our audience, enhance our offerings and more effectively carry out our mission to help people find and walk a spiritual path that brings comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness," said Steven Waldman, Beliefnet's CEO, editor-in-chief and co-founder.

Beliefnet has around 3 million unique visitors each month and a daily email newsletter that reaches nearly 11 million subscribers. The company is not affiliated with any spiritual organization or movement, and it has partnered with Time Warner's (TWX Quote) Time magazine, Yahoo! (YHOO Quote), and Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Web acquisitions have been popular in the media sector of late, but News Corp. shook up the industry this year with its $5 billion acquisition of Dow Jones (DJ Quote), the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, a deal that is expected to close before the end of the year.

Shares of News Corp. were recently down 41 cents, or 1.9%, to $21.16.