Investors Battling Over CNet

Posted on January 7, 2008
Filed Under Companies |

Interesting stuff going on at CNet. Two things jump out as meaningful, the first being that tech media has fundamentally changed in recent years and despite CNet’s premier brand they have been incapable of fully capitalizing on it. It’s not just about blogging vs. media either, ZDNet’s blogs (part of CNet) are some of the best tech blogs available so looking at News.com vs. TechCrunch is a red herring.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s not about tech journalism but rather tech media. How these companies are organized may in fact be the real problem. But irrespective of that, once again we are reminded that page views don’t matter.

Still, those moves have not assured investors. William Morrison, a ThinkEquity analyst, wrote, “While the online tech ad market has been growing in the 30 to 40 percent range for the past several quarters, our analysis suggests that CNet’s core tech ad business, which we believe represented 65 percent of total company revenue last year, is on pace to end 2007 down 3 to 4 percent.”

Mr. Morrison explained the negative outlook by saying, “Technology advertisers are becoming more efficient” in online ad spending “and moving dollars away from portals and higher-priced vertical sites toward more cost-efficient, targeted niche technology sites and social networking platforms.”

[From Investors Said to Seek a Takeover of CNet - New York Times]

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