UPDATE 2-News Corp sees U.S. economy hurting advertising

(Recasts with Murdoch comments from conference call)

By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch said on Wednesday stress in the U.S. economy is squeezing advertising budgets, adding that News Corp's (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Fox Interactive Media would miss an ambitious $1 billion annual revenue goal by 10 percent.

But FIM, which oversees the MySpace online social network, is a "very healthy" business and expects "well over" $1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2009, Murdoch said on News Corp's fiscal third-quarter earnings conference call.

"There's no doubt the consumer economy is stressed. You're seeing it affected in advertising, more short-term planning and booking," said the News Corp chairman and chief executive.

The media conglomerate said fiscal third-quarter profit tripled on higher adve