Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Peter Chernin Unplugged (Just for Now, Methinks): The Entire D5 Interview

Peter Chernin might be going from News Corp. But he’s not forgotten, at the least by our little tech Web site (see, Peter, we still like you, even if you’re–almost–no longer our boss!).

In fact, you can see him in action below in a video, talking about digital issues and more in a long interview I did with him onstage at the fifth D: All Things Digital conference in 2007.

Besides discussing the controversial acquisition attempt of Dow Jones by News Corp., Chernin also talked about the company’s experience with the social-networking site MySpace, its now successful joint venture with NBC Universal to create the Hulu online video service and the intersection of Hollywood and technology.

Chernin, with whom I have had several chats since then about the Web world, seemed to me to be intently and increasingly interested in the arena, especially since having purview over Fox Interactive Media as COO and President of News Corp. (NWS). He was also deeply involved in all the negotiations about digital issues related to the writers’ strike. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.)

And unlike a lot of Hollywood types, the 57-year-old Chernin has never been annoyingly disdainful (or, more to the point, deeply ignorant) about Silicon Valley, so I would not be surprised if he ended up in some prominent digital job as a next act.

While Chernin did pass on a chance to run Yahoo (YHOO)–he was a top choice of its board before it hired Carol Bartz–some more recent speculation, for example, has centered on other big tech jobs, even including potentially being a good candidate to take over at Apple (AAPL) if its ailing leader Steve Jobs ever decides to fully step aside.

Of course, all such chatter is premature given that he will not be out the door at the media giant–I wonder if I can get his luxe office on the Fox lot?–until the end of June.

Until then, here’s Chernin talking tech:

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We’d all be much better off simplifying our technological footprints and consolidating our trust in the few services that provide us the greatest value with the fewest unintended side effects.

— Gdgt co-founder Ryan Block, in a guest column for the New York Times, “Why I’m Quitting Instagram”