Wrenching job cuts at News Corp’s MySpace in Beverly Hills are only the first steps the online hangout must take to regain its cool.

Outshone by newcomers Facebook and Twitter, MySpace must reverse worrying trends in user metrics and replace a lucrative $300-million-a-year advertising deal with Google Inc. that expires next year, or risk lining up among Friendster, AltaVista, GeoCities and other once-mighty Internet brands.

That means redefining itself as a music and entertainment site, improving returns for advertisers and maybe even finding a new home, say analysts and former employees,

“People are very fickle in social networking,” said Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay. “Unless you’ve got a way to keep them continually refreshed, you get a five-year life out of them and then after that they’re really not very good.”

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