The end of an era at CNET

In the past week CNET Networks announced that Jai Singh will leave the company. Jai was the founder/creator of CNET News.com and in the past couple of years was the overall editorial head for all of CNET's "red ball" Web sites including CNET.com, Download.com and News.com.

Jai started News.com back in 1996, when writers still used the word "nascent" along with "Web" and the bulk of the people around the world still had to discover the Internet. Jai was instrumental in making News.com the world's No. 1 tech news Web site. I was super proud when CNET hired me in 2005 to come work for News.com. Jai was one of the people I interviewed with.

It hasn't been easy for CNET in recent years. The "different kind of media compay" faces strong competition from sites such as Engadget, Gizmodo, TechCrunch and Valleywag, not to mention all the tech pages in traditional media such as daily news papers and magazines. CNET has been working to reinvent itself, with News.com in particular joining the blogging fray and broading its coverage much beyond the hard core tech it used to focus on.

I left News.com last year and had a farewell lunch with Jai. We talked at length about News.com's course and competing with the blogosphere. Jai and I didn't agree, but the lunch was amicable. It will be interesting to see where News.com and CNET head now. The battle for the company's board and the call from outside the organization to focus, once again, on pure technology are fascinating.

I will always love CNET, watch where Dan Farber directs News.com. Dan is taking over News.com from Jai as editor in chief. Have fun Dan!