CNET seeks syndication to boost traffic

Abbey Klaassen of Advertising Age writes about how CNET is going to syndicate its content in a bid to boost its page views.

Klaassen wrote, “Recently, analysts have been critical of page-view stagnation. ‘While we recognize a mix shift toward video and Flash content makes it increasingly difficult to predict a growth outlook using only page views,’ wrote J.P. Morgan’s Imran Khan, ‘we remain concerned that CNet’s below-industry page-view growth rate may signal market-share losses.’ Mr. Ashe said he hopes the new syndication strategy will goose the company’s audience.

“He recounted the old way to do syndication — it happened only among the big media players, and there’d be fights over user attribution and contracts. By contrast, CNet will package its content into programmable, ad-supported units that can be picked up by anyone and run anywhere. While it has struck some formalized partnerships with companies such as AOL, Monster and Wikia, it is also offering a self-serve model.

“Mr. Ashe stresses this is markedly different from how major media companies are already ‘widgetizing’ their content — it won’t be just headlines and summaries packaged into a widget but full content, meaning those reading it will never have to jump to CNet’s sites.”

Read more here.