WSJ takes on LinkedIn

The Journal is working with a Santa Monica outfit called Slingshot Labs in developing a professional social network, presumably along the lines of LinkedIn, which has 15 million or so monthly visitors and is actually making money. TechCrunch reports that the site will be called WSJ Connect (they's dubbing it "LinkedIn Killer"). Actually, the paper already has an online community called WSJ Community, but nobody has been paying attention. WSJ Connect is still in the planning stages,

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.