CNET News.com To Offer Free Business Reports from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business

Business Wire, May 22, 2003

Business Editors

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 22, 2003

News.com Launches "Business Elites" Page, Providing IT and Business Professionals Access to Reports from Five Prestigious Publishers

CNET Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: CNET), the leading global media company informing and connecting the buyers, users and sellers of technology, today announced that Stanford Knowledgebase, published by Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, has become the fifth elite business editorial content site to offer free access to its content through the award-winning News.com Web site.

Also today, News.com launched its "Business Elites" page (http://businesselites.news.com), which features analytical work by Knowledge@Wharton from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, "The McKinsey Quarterly," and Booz Allen Hamilton's "strategy+business," as well as Stanford Knowledgebase.

Recognizing the size and caliber of News.com's audience, leading publications such as Knowledge@Wharton and The McKinsey Quarterly have forged close relationships with CNET for several years. Stanford's participation reaffirms CNET's commitment to bringing high quality research and analysis to its audience of technology and business readers.

"News.com reaches a significant audience of business professionals looking for news and special reports," said Barbara Buell, director of communication at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. "This relationship helps us deliver information about the knowledge developed at Stanford Business School to a wider business audience that is looking for thoughtful insights and ideas about complex issues in business."

CNET News.com's Business Elites program began in 2000 through a partnership with Knowledge@Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania's award-winning online business journal, which comprises not only content sharing but also joint editorial undertakings, including three Webcasts during the past three years. Leading business consultant McKinsey & Company joined shortly afterward, offering guest passes to its renowned case research, whereby News.com readers can access content otherwise available only to The McKinsey Quarterly subscribers.

Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge and Booz Allen Hamilton's strategy+business each joined the Business Elites program in 2001, as News.com readers demonstrated their growing appetite for top-caliber business research and analysis. These relationships quickly became an important source of traffic for each site.

"At Knowledge@Wharton, we long ago identified the close relationship between technology and business, and as News.com's oldest partner, it's gratifying that this view now is widely recognized," said Mukul Pandya, editor and director, Knowledge@Wharton. "Our highly successful relationship has resulted not only in News.com's becoming our largest source of registered users, but also in a variety of joint editorial projects which are popular with readers. Knowledge@Wharton gets a high volume of traffic from News.com, which tells me that our editorial content has high editorial value for News.com readers. Thus, both sides benefit from our partnership."

"Both Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge and News.com provide the business community information that helps them make informed decisions," said Sean Silverthorne, editor, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. "Since we started providing News.com with our content, they have been one of the biggest external drivers of unique visitors to our site, and the new Business Elite page promises to drive even more interest. We are pleased with the quality of News.com's audience and the relationships we've built with their users as a result of the partnership."

CNET News.com is known for its real-time journalism, as well as its ability to dissect pivotal trends before others have spotted them. Based in San Francisco with offices in Boston, New York, and Washington and correspondents in Asia and Europe, News.com's staff includes more than 40 editors and reporters who publish more than 30 stories daily. The newsgroup has won dozens of national honors, among them recent awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award (SABEW). Its technology stories are syndicated daily to several traditional news organizations, including The New York Times, Business Week, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, and Toronto Globe & Mail.

About CNET Networks, Inc.

CNET Networks, Inc. (www.cnetnetworks.com) is the leading global media company informing and connecting the buyers, users and sellers of technology. The company's product portfolio includes top brands CNET, ZDNet, TechRepublic, Builder.com, News.com, GameSpot, Download.com, and mySimon, as well as Computer Shopper magazine, and CNET Channel. With a strong presence in the U.S., Asia and Europe, CNET Networks has operations in 16 countries.