WSJ developing new social network

The Wall Street Journal, whose WSJ Community has flopped, is developing a new social network called WSJ Connect, writes Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

Arrington writes, “And instead of building it internally, like they did with WSJ Community, they’ve enlisted the help of another arm of parent company News Corp. – Slingshot Labs. And yes, they call it ‘LinkedIn Killer’ internally.

“Slingshot Labs is the R&D arm of News Corp. and works on digital products. Their first product was Daily Fill, which launched earlier this year. They also built the MySpace Events product that we covered in March. They operate fairly independently, have their own funding and 40-50 staff, according to one person familiar with their operations.

“WSJ Connect is still in the planning/conceptual stages, says one source, but there is ‘strong interest’ to move the project forward. Importantly, it would leverage the WSJ brand but would be a separate property and unencumbered by the need for a paid subscription to the newspaper.”

Read more here.