With an empire of sites and an army of traffic, it was only a matter of time before News Corp. did the inevitable: announce its own ad network. Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit in New York, Fox Interactive Media President Peter Levinsohn said the company plans to develop its own ad network.

"We're well down the path in terms of discussions with some of the other News Corp. properties to do ad serving," Levinsohn said. "Ultimately we'll take the company off network and become an ad network for assets outside of the News Corporation empire."

The network could be available as early as the first half of 2008, according to Levinsohn.

The network would serve display ads, which Levinsohn said would not conflict with the company's partnership with Google to provide search listings.

While the scale of a News Corp. ad network certainly appeals to marketers, the company is betting that its showcase property -- MySpace -- could be the real gem. According to Levinsohn, the company-wide ad network idea actually grew out a MySpace project to build an ad network that leverages the site's new interest-based targeting solution.

In recent months, both MySpace and Facebook have launched new ad solutions based on data collected from information users report on their pages. So far, Facebook has drawn the ire of some privacy groups, while MySpace has managed to stay under the radar.