Two among the 117 million of you MySpace users will get to cover the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this year as citizen journalists (oh, how we hate that term!).

All you have to do is submit a short video piece starting June 26 to MySpace and NBC News’s Decisions ‘08 page answering three questions:

•  ”Why do you vote?”
•  ”Why are you the best person for this job?”
• “How will you stand out in the crowd and get the scoop no one else can?”

A panel from MySpace and NBC News will narrow the submissions down to five finalists. The final two will be selected by MySpace members starting July 21. The winner will be announced on July 29.

Personally, we’d like to see at least one of the winners come from a non-U.S. region to lend the coverage a more international perspective. Failing that, perhaps someone will step forward to complete the assignment in a chicken costume.

(Photo: MySpace)

What would a combined InBev/Anheuser-Busch do with advertising? It’s one of the questions already being tossed around in the wake of InBev’s $46 billion bid for the brewer of Bud and Bud Light.

One obvious problem for Anheuser-Busch, which spends about $475 million each year on advertising, is that their marketing focuses heavily on the idea of being an All-American beer and company.

That may not play so well when you’re owned by a company based in Belgium, we reported.

As Ted Parrack, chief strategic officer of Colangelo, a Connecticut-based marketing agency, told us: “How do Americans think about beer? Guys make beer. Corporations don’t make beer. Something called InBev makes Budweiser? And there’s nobody named Busch around? What?”

The Wall Street Journal brought up Anheuser-Busch’s big sports marketing efforts, writing that they could be cut back.

One area that is potentially vulnerable is sports marketing. Anheuser, one of the largest sports marketers in the world, spent about $300 million last year for sports sponsorships, up 11% from the year earlier, according to IEG, a Chicago-based research unit of WPP Group that tracks sponsorships.

Anheuser is affiliated with dozens of sports, from baseball to equestrian competitions. It sponsors sports leagues big and small, including Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and Major League Lacrosse, and even the U.S. polo team. This summer, the company is one of the official beers of the Beijing Olympic Games.

But we think the best headline about the deal goes to The Nashua Telegraph, which splashed “This Bud’s for vous” across its business pages. The New Hampshire paper talked to Nashua resident Rob Masek.

“(He) envisions the Belgian takeover of an American beer having the same affect as when German auto manufacturer bought out the U.S.-based Chrysler. People stopped buying Chrysler cars because of the perception it was a weaker product, he said.

Masek can see people attending a NASCAR event questioning those who would dare drink a Belgian beer. ” ‘What are you doing? It’s un-American,’ ” Masek imagines the conversation going.

We’ll see how this one plays out. In the meantime, sit back. Have a cold one.

Keep an eye on:

• The head of Tribune Co’s publishing division and publisher of the Chicago Tribune is retiring, a week after the company’s new leaders said they would overhaul their newspapers to cut costs and try to attract more readers as they struggle with dismal advertising sales and falling circulation (Reuters)
• A controversial push by the Screen Actors Guild to defeat a recent accord negotiated by a rival union has touched off an open rebellion within Hollywood’s largest actors guild (Los Angeles Times)
• News and information company Bloomberg LP could be a hotly contested asset if a stake went on the block, although the most likely buyer was seen by some as founder and billionaire Michael Bloomberg himself (Reuters)
• News Corp’s MySpace plans to launch a global redesign next week in an attempt to widen its demographic and boost user engagement on the site (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)

Talk about passing the buck.

During a panel discussion on media and entertainment at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Wednesday, former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel swiftly deflected questions about the Internet company’s current pickle with Microsoft to his fellow panelist and Yahoo! board member Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

Asked by moderator Dennis Kneale of CNBC how Yahoo had gotten itself in the position of being courted by Microsoft, Semel pointed to Kotick, who was sitting next to him.

“Ask the board member,” he said.

But Kotick wouldn’t bite. In fact, he said nothing at all.

Later on, Kneale tried again, asking another panelist, News Corp. President Peter Chernin, to tell Semel and Kotick what Yahoo! should do in response to Microsoft’s $44 billion bid.

“Can you tell us what Yahoo should do with itself?” Kneale pleaded.

Chernin also deferred to Kotick, who again said nothing. When pressed by Kneale to give the Yahoo board member his advice, Chernin finally gave a response that could only be characterized as diplomatic.

“I have no advice for Yahoo!, it seems to be doing just fine,” he said.

Semel gave a similarly deferential response when asked by Kneale whether News Corp. should spin off a portion of its MySpace business to the public.

“It’s a very good asset and I’m sure ultimately he will find a better way to monetize it and bring more and more advertising,” Semel said.

And they all lived happily ever after.

News Corp jewel Fox Interactive Media (a.k.a the catchy “FIM”) made a late-night admission that its revenue might fall short of a $1 billion target for the current fiscal year.

The division that houses teen hangout MySpace is also revamping its advertising sales division to embrace a new technology that mines user profiles on the social network site to serve visitors more individually-tailored ads.

“We expect to be close to our target,” FIM said of its revenue for fiscal 2008. One company source said the timing of the new ad technology could be partly to blame for any shortfall.

This is not the first sign of trouble at the unit considered News Corp’s boldest play in the digital arena. As early as October, Rupert Murdoch downplayed expectations for MySpace revenue for fiscal 2008, while ad sales partner Google admitted in January that making money off of social networks (read: MySpace) was proving more difficult than even Larry Page and Sergey Brin could have anticipated.

Is that what made Yahoo so attractive?

(Reuters)

Keep an eye on:
* Microsoft and Yahoo senior executives met this week to discuss Microsoft’s proposal to acquire the Internet company but failed to resolve any of their differences. (WSJ)

* The dispute over the $20 billion leveraged buyout of U.S. radio operator Clear Channel will go to trial in New York as early as May 5. (Reuters)

* Mexico’s media giant Televisa starts production of its first Chinese language soap opera, as it looks to the Asian market for new business. (Reuters)

* HarperCollins is forming a new publishing group that will substitute profit-sharing with authors for cash advances and try to eliminate the costly practice of allowing booksellers to return unsold copies. (NYTimes)

(Photo of MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, via Reuters)

 Was it any coincidence that Apple decided to trumpet its victory as the biggest U.S. retailer of music on the same day the world’s biggest social network declared its intentions to provide an alternative?

Who knows? What’s certain is Apple now faces another in a growing legion of competitors aiming to chip away at its dominance.

Here’s what the experts think:

James McQuivey, analyst at Forrester Research:
“A MySpace music store is exactly the right step to get the music industry to the next level because it recognizes that consumers don’t just buy music, they experience it, which is a much larger concept — they share, they discover, they heckle, they even use it to provide self-identify. That’s what people do with music already on MySpace, it’s what has made Last.FM and Imeem.com so popular so quickly. But none of those experiences take it to the next level, allowing consumer to integrate buying music and related things. ”

Ben Drury CEO of 7Digital, a UK-based digital music service:
“Initially, this looks like a positive move for consumers. DRM is still a big issue for a lot of music fans and this latest announcement is further evidence that the majors are moving away from it all together. Competition to iTunes’ domination of the market is always good news, as it helps drive competitive pricing in the digital music sector. However, the quality of the user experience may still be an issue. MySpace pages are chaotic due to the levels of customisation and could easily put consumers off the service. It will also be interesting to see how many consumers, or parents of young consumers, will be willing to hand their credit card details over to MySpace when buying music.”

Paul Myers Chief Executive Wippit (digital music service):
“I think the effect that MySpace has had on music has been hyped out of control. Half truths or misunderstandings like those that the Arctic Monkeys or Lily Allen were broke on MySpace have become accepted as fact in some circles. And it’s a problem that might hurt it in the long run as the majority of friend requests most people get on MySpace these days are from aspiring musicians plugging their wares and not old friends or new acquaintances. If it carries on MySpace will become a service of aspiring musicians, spamming aspiring musicians, spamming aspiring musicians.”

MySpace has sent out a ‘breaking news’ media advisory for a news conference featuring CEO Chris de Wolfe (left) at 11am ET, which we presume is about the launch of MySpace Music as Reuters reported yesterday to be coming in days.

Silicon Alley Insider reported later yesterday that Universal Music Group had settled with MySpace for $100 million, a figure we also confirmed from our source. The November 2006 lawsuit was the main sticking point for getting MySpace Music off to a flying start. With a third of the recorded music market under its thumb, Universal’s participation was seen as critical to the new service’s success.

MySpace’s parent News Corp. will own the majority stake of MySpace Music while Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group will each have a minority stake proportional to their market size, say our sources. The music companies also have an eye on a possible spin-off of the music company in the future, said one source.

No one knows if EMI, the smallest of the big four, will be on board in the future. This week the company appointed former Google executive Doug Merrill as president of digital.

Keep any eye on:

• Jay-Z does $150 million deal with Live Nation - NY Times, WSJ and Silicon Alley Insider
• The iPhone shortage - NY Times, Reuters
• Garmin to cut costs in 2008 - Reuters