CNET Sold For a Pittance; Axios Lays Off 50
August 7, 2024
4:56 am
Red Ventures paid $500M for CNET/ZDNet in 2020 and this week sold them for $100M. Kaput went its plan to use AI to monetize content.
>> Red Ventures
The Verge: ‘CNET Pushed Reporters to Be More Favorable to Advertisers, Staffers Say’
February 3, 2023
11:28 am
CNET insiders are leaking, helping Mia Sato deliver this powerful story, which alleges that CNET buckles to advertisers, and also, that editors knew about the
CNET and Owner Red Ventures Have a Mess on Their Hands
February 2, 2023
11:28 am
The latest from Futurism: ‘Leaked Messages Show How CNET’s Parent Company Really Sees AI-Generated Content… They’re happy to spoonfeed you unlabeled AI garbage — but
AI-Written Articles Coming to Bankrate
July 27, 2022
6:35 pm
The Associated Press began publishing computer-generated articles eight years ago. Yet it always seems a bit futuristic — perhaps even dystopian — when a publisher turns to an algorithm to write articles.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Congress to Investigate the Omnicom-IPG Deal
December 20, 2024
Well, for now it’s Jim Jordan… but such news illustrates the kind of world we seem to be headed for. Adweek has the details, subscription required.
SWMS Predictions for 2025
December 10, 2024
No “predictions” post will appear on this site. That said, quite a number of subscribers have asked for a Zoom/MS Teams presentation on what 2025 will bring. A conversation is precisely the right tool for the job. After the election — and with AI transforming publishing and life — “2025” is best discussed among peers, not predicted. So if you’d like to have a confidential group exchange on what stands to unfold, and why, and how comms pros can come out on top in spite of it all, drop a line and we shall schedule something.
Talk About Confidentiality…
December 10, 2024
According to Adweek, Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky were in merger talks for eleven and a half months before the transaction was announced this week. Amazing that it didn’t leak.
Introducing ‘SWMS Sound Thinking’
November 22, 2024
Should PR pros stop visiting X, with all its lies and hate? It’s only going to get worse. Or are tidbits from targets too important to walk away from? Click here to watch tech edit vet David Strom and I disagree (at high speed) about this, as one compelling visual after another pops up on your screen. In 2025, SWMS will officially launch “SWMS Sound Thinking,” designed to be “argumentative insight in six minutes or less.” Each segment will explore a timely and controversial topic of interest to tech comms pros. This prototype runs 5:25. Hope you enjoy it — feedback vital and welcome! –Sam
Business Insider Reporters Starting to Go on Camera
November 19, 2024
New EIC Jamie Heller has asked her reporters to start going on camera — for the BI TikTok channel — to explain the big, deep-divey story they just published. Other publications do this — especially archival Fortune. BI is now on that too. Game on.
The ‘AI Fantasy Draft’ From Eric Newcomer
November 13, 2024
At this time last year, Eric Newcomer and his two podcast co-hosts — Max Child and James Wilsterman — each formed an “AI startup fantasy team” and picked five AI startups to seed their rosters. We’re now in year 2 and it’s time to draft again. The podcasters wonder… which startups do they dump? Which do they add? The player whose startups accumulate the most total value by Nov. 1, 2028 is the winner, so there’s plenty of time to make adjustments. Here’s a link to the AI fantasy team podcast — you may need a password. Not sure.