News Corp takes a leap of faith in Beliefnet

Media conglomerate News Corp said Wednesday that its film and television arm had purchased religious site Beliefnet, which is the most popular religion site in the US. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, it is believed that News Corp paid in the tens of millions for the site. Topics on the site are not just Christian-centric: subjects on other religions are covered, including Judaism, Hinduism, and others.

Beliefnet will likely remain a separate entity and would not be integrated with other News Corp web properties. However, the site may look to integrate somewhat with MySpace in the future, Fox Digital president Dan Fawcett told the Wall Street Journal. The site would also adopt advertising technology that was developed by Fox Interactive for MySpace, he said.