Margin Check: MySpace, in-game advertising, mobile newspapers and more

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.
–MySpace deleted 29,000 registered sex offenders from its network, news that comes as social-networking services become close to ubiquitous among teens and tweens. As wireless firms look to cash in on the social-networking craze, they likely will have to deal with issues such as parental permission, age verification and other privacy and protection issues. And if regulators get into the act, players could find their business models trapped under mandated policies.
–Microsoft’s in-game advertising company, Massive, announced it will begin serving dynamic ads to five new Electronic Arts console games, including the popular “Madden” football game. In-game advertising is already trickling down into the mobile realm, and with EA’s embrace of the space, it may be only a matter of time before EA’s mobile business-the leader in the U.S. mobile game market-begins exploring in-game advertising.
–Social-networking Internet site ConnectU has sued rival social-networking service Facebook for copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. It seems the social-networking space has matured to the point were lawsuits are a valid form of competition-much like the mobile e-mail space, which is rife with such legal tussles. If social networking gains steam on the mobile front, it’s a good bet that lawyers for the various players will soon be engaged in their own legal skirmishes.
–Nintendo’s quarterly profit scored a huge boost from the success of the company’s Wii gaming console. It’s unclear if Nintendo, which as to date shied away from the mobile realm, will use its windfall to enter the wireless space.
–According to the Newspaper Association of America, 59 million people accessed a newspaper Web site during the second quarter. The figure was up 7.7% from the same period last year. As the news business enters the digital realm, the next frontier may well be mobile. Indeed, a range of established media players, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, are already expanding their mobile efforts.
–Established media companies are bemoaning their inability to track viewership numbers. Indeed, CBS was surprised by the uproar it caused among fans of the show “Jericho” when the network canceled the program; CBS was unaware of the number of people who were watching the show on the Web and digital video recorders. As more and more consumers turn to alternative channels to consume content-including the mobile channel-there’s likely a huge business to be made in tracking those numbers.