Former AOL chief to join News Corp.

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Former America Online Chief Executive Jonathan Miller is expected to join News Corp. in the newly-created position overseeing digital strategy, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Miller is a well known figure in digital media, whose name was mentioned in conjunction with the top job at Yahoo. It would be the start of a major reorganization of the News Corp. digital division. It’s unclear how this would affect Peter Levinsohn, who currently oversees Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace.

Levinsohn is well regarded by New Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and other senior executives at the company, and sources say there could potentially be another role for him inside the company.

Miller stepped down as head of AOL in 2006, and founded the investment firm Velocity Capital. Last year, he was reportedly involved in trying to secure financing to make a bid for Yahoo at $20 to $22 a share, or $28 billion to $30 billion.

Miller has established himself as a hot hand on the Internet. He made his mark in e-commerce at Barry Diller’s media conglomerate, then as chairman and chief executive of AOL, from which he was ousted in November 2006. He has detractors, particularly inside Time Warner, but gets plaudits from analysts and colleagues who say he is one of the industry’s foremost strategic thinkers.

Herb Scannell, CEO of Internet television start-up Next New Networks and former vice-chairman of MTV Networks, calls Miller ‘one of the smartest guys I have come across in the media world.’

-- Dawn Chmielewski and Claudia Eller