CNET and the new media

Years before I'd heard of WWW, hypertext protocol, and linking (just struggling to ftp and code some e-mail), I subscribed to CNET at work. I can't remember when I stopped reading it or looking for comfort there in an IT world fast spinning out of my control. And I'd never heard of blogging before 2003 and now I'm in my fifth year with eleven blogs. But, you don't see any ads here, do you? Or winky, blinky, noisy things. No, I'm no threat to CNET. But Kevin Delaney of WSJ yesterday wrote about CNET's competition--and blogs are a part of that. Blogs and their ads. When I subscribed in the early 90s I think CNET was about pretty serious stuff, but it has moved on (without my help or support) to gaming, entertainment, and news (I'm not denigrating the billions invested, but for me it's the same appeal as viaticals). I get a tech/business combo with cheese now and sometimes dump it before I read it. Delaney writes

"The investor battle raging over the iconic Internet media company offers an object lesson in how high-tech Web firms that miss a beat can be vulnerable to succeeding waves of Internet technology. With the Web in its second decade as a popular consumer medium, some well-known companies that arose in its first decade, like CNET and Yahoo Inc., now face heightened competition. . . As tech blogs proliferated, CNET's News.com and ZDNet tech sites lost 27% and 4%, respectively, of their U.S. readers over the past year, according to comScore Inc."

It has sold off some underperformers and does have its own blog now (crave.cnet.com) but I don't think I've ever stumbled into it (which is how I get to most technology blogs). Delaney will explain how this working for investors.