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March 19, 2008 1:57 PM PDT

The blogosphere's Napoleon

Posted by Dan Farber

The blogosphere is atwitter (see Techmeme) with Mike Arrington's latest call for someone to "pony up a big round of financing around an existing blog, or perhaps a new entity, and then start rolling them up into a big fat CNET-crushing $200 million per year in revenue business."

It's pleasing to have Mike and others targeting CNET. It must mean that we are at the top of the heap. Competitive envy comes with the territory. And I admire what Mike, Om Malik, Matt Marshall, Rafat Ali, and others have done to build their networks and companies. In fact, we are all friends.

But I'm all for competing. We have lots of ammunition stored up. And our troops across CNET News.com, Webware, Crave, Reviews, and Download.com are in the field as I speak, getting after the important stories.

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Add a Comment (Log in or register) 4 comments (Page 1 of 1)
by tomforemski March 19, 2008 5:05 PM PDT
A roll up strategy is the obvious thing to do. But good luck trying. They are all personality driven and ego driven. I can't see GigaOm working for Arrington or vice versa, and the same applies to every other high profile "blog" site. You can roll up companies in a sector, you can't roll up "personalities."
Reply to this comment
by tomforemski March 19, 2008 5:07 PM PDT
PS: Dan Farber already did the roll up. ZDnet's blogger network has been very successful for Cnet!
Reply to this comment
by dahowlett March 19, 2008 5:37 PM PDT
What @tomforemski said but more: what @dan said: "getting after the important stories" and not after bubbley eyeballs that will be gone in a heartbeat.
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by automatt March 19, 2008 10:28 PM PDT
Oh that photo is priceless.
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  • About Outside the Lines

  • Dan Farber is the editor in chief of CNET News. He has covered technology for more than two decades, and previously served as editor in chief of ZDNet, PCWeek and Macweek. Outside the Lines explores the intersection of business and technology.

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