Comments on: CNET Board Has “Tense, Uncomfortable” Meeting With Jana Consortium

By: Jana Consortium: CNET leadership “presided over massive value destruction”

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:48:13 +0000

[...] hasn’t gotten them much face time with CEO Neil Ashe and the rest of the executive team. From reports, CNET has treated Jana as an outsider, despite the fact that they are the largest or second largest [...]

By: Episode #5 - Luminary Thumb - UnNamed Tech Podcast

Episode #5 - Luminary Thumb - UnNamed Tech Podcast — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:07:37 +0000

[...] Techcrunch Software: Keypass If IP Is Property, Where Is the Property Tax? - Slashdot CNET Board Has “Tense” Meeting With Jana Consortium - Techcrunch How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips) - calacanis.com [...]

By: CNET Cuts 10% Of Workforce, Effective Immediately

CNET Cuts 10% Of Workforce, Effective Immediately — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:35:53 +0000

[...] has had no shortage of headlines recently, from changes at the top through to an ongoing battle for control against largest shareholder Jana [...]

By: CNET Soap Opera Continues; CEO Neil Ashe May Be Fighting For His Job

CNET Soap Opera Continues; CEO Neil Ashe May Be Fighting For His Job — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:59:27 +0000

[...] team continues to fight on. Previous meetings between Jana and the CNET board were already “tense and uncomfortable.” I can only imagine they’re getting more [...]

By: Ujwal

Ujwal — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:41:46 +0000

i stopped reading news.com once i found techcrunch.com

i never analysed why.. . i guess it just seemed logical for me to move on….

maybe i loved reading/finding/experiencing innovation and stopped finding much of that in news.com as much as i found in techcrunch.

no criticisms but just stating what i experienced…

i and many others want to experience and be a “fan”… thats what every product /service should try (my opinion)…and “make enough fans”.

cnet maybe could try to figure out why their “old fans” are moving on…. (rather than going internationally)..

or they may want to read seth godin first …. concentrate on your core competitencies and improve on them…you just need “enough fans” than more user bases…

((recommeding seth godin, cause i have become a fan of him….link here: http://sethgodi...com/seths_blog/ ))

and bla bla bla

enjoy,

Ujw

By: XXX

XXX — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:39:41 +0000

As a CNET employee, I have to say that comment #19 is right on. Nobody else gets it, including Arrington.

By: Forumistan

Forumistan — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:09:38 +0000

CNET clearly know how to publish online. You are right “90’s dotcommer”.
Thanks for the information…

By: 90's dotcommer

90's dotcommer — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:26:55 +0000

Dumb dumb dumb. CNET clearly know how to publish online. If their systems need updating, well that’s something all online businesses need to do every few years but no reason for a change of board.

As for getting rid of TV.com – madness – that is growing fast and making money faster. MP3.com is a dead duck and should either be binned or reworked to offer something new.

CNET’s fault is their size makes for a lack of nimbleness, and there is uncertainty due to lots of people leaving in the past. They have a great management team now, they should balance the workforce and get them focused.

As for the reputations of some of the members of the consortium. I know more than most, and I wouldn’t give any of them a board role.

By: Ian Bell

Ian Bell — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:10:44 +0000

Err, just noticed a mistake. I meant to say that I agree with the Cnet board about focusing on building the business internationally.

Revamping the CMS, and ad server will not help create immediate results or revenue, and takes time to redo.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:08:15 +0000

I completely agree with the Jana folks as well. (And Doug up there – good ideas!) The board’s current plan sounds like “If we just do as much of the same as possible in as many places as possible, it will all work out.” That doesn’t make any sense.

Also, I’ve had to spend a lot of time on download.com recently (reason why? Kind of like comparing download sites for my job; long story), and it is by far the least user-friendly. It’s like someone decided that having actual content was a conflict of interest with their advertising, so they try to push the content out of the way as much as possible so they can fill every page with ads. God forbid I’d actually want to use the site (which I do not do under normal circumstances unless someone links to a specific article).

By: BlogReader

BlogReader — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:18:42 +0000

What kind of board recommends overhauling a CMS and ad serving platform? That’s kinda odd.

By: Ian Bell

Ian Bell — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:03:44 +0000

I actually tend to side with the “consortium” here. What’s wrong with focusing on international business…. and growing the brand? A lot of people still do not know who they are.

BTW what does “CNET” stand for? Not a very consumer freindly name (I am sure I could Wikipedia it and find out).

They have the Crave blog (among others), lots of odd Podcasts and content. I am not sure they know who they even are. Some of their blog posts are pretty unprofessional, and I do agree that they demand NY Times type respect, but dig up dirt for easy pageviews.

But still….with Ziff Davis filing for bankruptcy, Cnet is the only large place for good reviews and tech news. There is no reason to blacklist them. I hope they are able to work things out.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:00:24 +0000

Just curious to hear from people what precisely is outdated about the CNET CMS. Choosing a CMS is something I assume 90% of TechCrunch readers face at least once, if not multiple times, in their careers so it would be interesting to hear how CNET is limited by their CMS.

By: Dyde

Dyde — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:56:41 +0000

CNET s****. There are hundreds of irreleveant of links on every page, multitude of flashing banners, comment system from hell. They provide the same news as other IT news outlets. What’s their USP? I think there is no fixing this monster. It’ll ultimately join the deadpool after selling the domain names it owns.

By: Doug Mehus

Doug Mehus — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:42:23 +0000

I have to agree with Jana Partners on this. I’ve been thinking CNET Networks needs to regroup, focus on what they do best and that’s providing tech news & reviews, software downloads and resources for IT professionals. They can expand by purchasing large tech blogs and other news sites (such as the InternetNews.com and EarthWeb.com properties from Jupitermediap; SourceForge Inc.; TechTarget Inc.; or the assets of bankrupt Ziff Davis Media Inc.) but should immediately sell their non-core assets, such as TV.com, mp3.com, Search.com, to raise capital for the acquisitions as well as a revamping of their infrastructure. Their content management system is outdated and the Jive Software they use for forums and blogs is horrible.

Cheers,
Doug

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:33:56 +0000

yes, the witch burning has drawn quite a crowd.

By: del harris

del harris — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:18:25 +0000

WTF? first, go check techmeme – there are lots of others taking even harder shots at sara lacy for that interview. .

as far as your obsession with cnet, get over it, dude. it reflects badly

By: Wade

Wade — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:03:44 +0000

I’m not familiar with their current problems, but I feel CNET is fixable. But in terms of the stock market, now is not a good time to be a company like CNET (or any company with exposure to the US consumer).

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:53:39 +0000

un.valley – that’s because I’ve been around long enough to remember when CNET was so great, a must read every day. Now it’s like an accident scene.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:47:50 +0000

I assume you guys are talking about my twitter criticisms of the CNET/Sarah Lacy drive by? These are unrelated. CNET just bugs me sometimes. Their writers seem to want NYTimes type respect but resort to valleywag type articles to get page views. Can’t have it both ways. Or maybe they can. Everyone seems to think its fun. Except Sarah.

By: sean percival

sean percival — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:36:28 +0000

Timing is everything as they say.

You keep this stuff in queue just in case?

By: un.valley

un.valley — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:31:08 +0000

mike, you sure do hate on cnet and it reflects poorly.

By: Atorips

Atorips — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:30:31 +0000

CNET Networks is fast! I like it!oh…

By: iServiceshop

iServiceshop — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:25:30 +0000

“CNET stock continues to slump – it’s worth about half as much as it was two years ago..”

And (Our HO) it will continue a downward path until they catch up a little bit, clean up their bloggers mistakes and grab some new content..

The Team
http://iservice...op.blogspot.com

By: jenkins

jenkins — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:19:07 +0000

I have to chuckle at the inclusion of Paul Gardi in all of this. Does anyone know Paul? He really killed it at Ask.com:)