CBS Interactive

CBS Interactive

Type	Subsidiary of CBS Corporation
Industry	Online Media
Headquarters	235 Second Street, San Francisco, California, United States
Key people	Jim Lanzone, president
Revenue	US$602 million (CBS, 2009)
Employees	2,080 (CNET, 2006)
Website	CBS Interactive.com

CBS Interactive (formerly CBS Digital Media Group) is an American company and is a division of the CBS Corporation. It is an online content network for information and entertainment. Its websites cover news, sports, entertainment, technology and business.^[1] It is headed by Jim Lanzone.^[2]

CBS Interactive coordinates with CBS Network Sales to bring together ad sales operations, as well as the Corporation's television, sports, and news groups, who will continue to be involved in program development.

History

On May 30, 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for £140m (US$280m).^[3]

On June 30, 2008, CNET Networks' was acquired by CBS and the assets were merged into CBS Interactive, including Metacritic, GameSpot, TV.com, and Movietome.^[4]

Websites

CNET

Main article: CNET

Logo of CNET.

CNET is CNET Networks' online portal, providing access to reviews, news, downloads, price comparisons and CNET TV as well as web search powered by search.com. CNET is divided into five major sections: reviews, news and blogs (News.com), downloads, and How To.

CNET Shopper

CNET Shopper.com is a site claiming to find the lowest prices on items from online retailers. While generally reliable, there have been notable errors in pricing information on occasion including a camera worth over a thousand dollars being advertised for only a few dollars.

CNET UK

Logo of CNET UK.

In addition to the CNET site which is aimed at North American audiences, there are regional CNET sites including CNET Australia (for Australia), CNET UK (for the United Kingdom) and CNET Asia (for Asia). Content on regional sites is a mix of mostly locally produced content from regional offices of CNET, with certain content – mostly news – from the US CNET site. In addition, content is sometimes sourced from ZDNet.

In 2005, CNET launched CNET UK.^[5] This UK arm of CNET Networks covers similar areas to the main CNET, but specifically for UK consumers. As of January 2008, an independent audit certified CNET UK was the largest consumer electronics website in the UK, with 2.5 million unique visitors.^[6] The site is mainly focused on reviews, news, a gadget blog ('Crave', a name which the main CNET eventually adopted for its own blog) and editorial content from a team of editors, covering consumer electronics and car tech. CNET UK is managed and overseen by site editor Jason Jenkins (formerly of T3 Magazine). The CNET UK editorial team consists of Jason Jenkins (Editor), Nike Hide (Chief sub-editor), Charles Kloet (Sub-Editor), Rory Reid (Editor, Cars and Computing), Ian Morris (Editor, Home Cinema and Community), Flora Graham (Editor, Mobile Phones), Richard Trenholm (Editor, News and Features) and Luke Westaway (Staff Writer). CNET UK also releases a weekly podcast called the 'CNET UK Podcast'.

CNET Networks UK also comprises a number of other online-only publications, including GameSpot UK, Silicon.com, ZDNet.co.uk, and SmartPlanet.com (now defunct), each of which produce both editorial and audio-video productions, including GameSpot's video show 'Start/Select', and ZDNet's popular 'Dialogue Box' show. Collectively, the publications of CNET Networks UK generate 132 million monthly page views from 9.8 million unique visitors.^[7]

On November 19, 2007, CNET UK launched the UK version of CNET TV, CNETTV.co.uk, which ceased production on May 2, 2008.

BNET

Main article: BNET

BNET, a portal designed similarly to CNET, was created for the businessman or woman, specifically those in the management field. It provides tools and information in an organized format, while also providing professional insight on emerging news and strategies affecting a range of industries, many not specifically related to the technology industry.

Other websites

Other CBS Interactive websites include GameSpot, GameFAQs, Metacritic, MP3.com, TV.com, and Movie Tome, which operate under the "CNET Networks Entertainment" brand name; Chow, Chowhound, UrbanBaby and Consumating; Webware, a blog launched in November 2006 dedicated to web applications.^[8]

Business units

Tech and News: CBS News.com, CNET.com, News.com, VersionTracker.com, CNETContentSolutions.com

Business: BNET, CBS MoneyWatch

Business Technology: ZDNet, TechRepublic, SmartPlanet

Entertainment and Lifestyle: CBS.com, TV.com, TheInsider.com, Chow.com, UrbanBaby.com, CBS Audience Network, MovieTome, Clicker.com

Games and Music: CBS Radio.com, GameSpot, Last.fm, metacritic.com, Search.com, GameFaqs

Sports: CBSSports.com, MaxPreps.com,

See also

	San Francisco Bay Area portal
	Companies portal

References

1. ^ http://www.cbsinteractive.com/our_brands.php?tag=main_wrap;mainnav
2. ^ http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/04/cbs-acquires-clicker-jim-lanzone-named-president-of-cbs-interactive/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
3. ^ "Music site Last.fm bought by CBS". BBC News. May 30, 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6701863.stm. Retrieved April 28, 2010. 
4. ^ "CBS CORPORATION COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF CNET NETWORKS; MERGES OPERATIONS INTO NEW, EXPANDED CBS INTERACTIVE BUSINESS UNIT". CBS Corporation. 2008-06-30. http://www.cbscorporation.com/news/prdetails.php?id=3503. Retrieved 2008-06-30. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ CBS Interactive
6. ^ "CNET Jan '08 audit figures" (PDF). ABCE. January 15, 2007. http://www.abce.org.uk/ABCE_PDFS/CNET.co.uk1107w.pdf. Retrieved 2008-01-16. 
7. ^ "CNET audit figures". CNET Networks UK. February 4, 2008. http://cnetnetworks.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-02-04. 
8. ^ Needleman, Rafe (2006-11-29). "Webware.com is live!". Rafe's Blog. http://www.rafeneedleman.com/rafes_blog/2006/11/webwarecom_is_l.html. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 

External links

• CBS Interactive.com
• [1]
• MaxPreps.com
• CBS Interactive
• CBS Interactive UK
• CBS Interactive Australia