Changes are afoot at Fox Interactive Media (FIM), the parent company of MySpace, AskMen.com and IGN. Michael Barrett, the Fox Interactive Media CRO whose job it was to monetize a disjointed network of sites, has announced his departure after missing revenue projections by 10 percent.

The news first broke on TechCrunch, which called Barrett a "fall guy," pointing out that the company's $100 million revenue shortfall may have been the product of projections that were impossible to meet. For the past few months there have been rumblings from many of the web's major players about the difficulty of monetizing social networks, despite the sector's stunning rise in popularity.

As for FIM, the reaction to the poor numbers won't end with Barrett's departure. According to The Wall Street Journal, FIM will now attempt to boost revenue through a spin-off of its advertising technology operations.

Christened the Fox Interactive Media Audience Network, the new group will be run by Adam Bain. Ironically, the group's main technology asset -- the ability to target based on data mined from users' MySpace profiles -- was an initiative developed under Barrett's regime.