So farewell then, 'ZD'
In today’s media landscape, a career spanning over 31 years with the same company — or rather, successive companies with ‘ZD’ in their name or portfolio — is, I think, an unusual achievement. What that achievement signifies I’m not sure; a cautious nature, perhaps, along with an enduring ability to turn up regularly (when we had an office), remain competent, not go into management, not break the “4 o'clock rule”* on Friday afternoons, and generally fly under the radar. Whatever, that low-flying but persistent career has now been downed by a ground-to-air missile in the shape of the latest round of layoffs from ZDNET’s current owner, Red Ventures (RV). Grounded, likely permanently at my age, it’s time to reflect.
There have been a lot of ‘ZD’ owners since I joined Ziff-Davis back in July 1991, as a Production Editor tasked with helping to launch the UK edition of PC Magazine (see the first two issues, above). We were visited by the legendary Bill Ziff himself in the early days, who delighted the newly hired London troops with his talk of “we travel first class” and “religious overspend on editorial” — edicts put into practice by launch chief Paul Somerson, who was serving a temporary exile/secondment from the US. Different days, in so many ways.
In 1994, Bill Ziff retired and turned his company over to his sons, who decided they wanted to be bankers rather than publishers. So the Ziff brothers sold Ziff-Davis for $1.4 billion to private equity firm Forstmann Little, who promptly sold it on to Masayoshi Son’s Softbank for $2.1bn, making themselves a tidy $700m profit. In 1999, Willis Stein, another private equity outfit, bought ZD’s magazine business for $780 million, while CNET Networks acquired the online arm, ZDNET, for $1.6bn the next year. In the UK, PC Magazine went to VNU, which was my cue to jump ship to ZDNET UK as reviews editor. CBS bought CNET Networks in 2008 for $1.8bn, turned into CBS Interactive and then ViacomCBS, and sold it to Red Ventures in 2020 for $500 million. Quite the corporate rollercoaster.
By my count, I have been ‘owned’ by eight different parent companies over the years. I was part of the furniture for a long time, until RV decided that the Yorkshire-made chaise longue in the ZDNET UK corner had been around too…longue.
Question: which incoming CEO do you think startled the assembled UK workforce with grandiose talk of his “100-year plan” for the business?
The best place to chew over a career and swap war stories with friends and ex-colleagues is, of course, the pub, and hopefully that will happen at some point. For now, though, I must pay tribute to some of the excellent folks I’ve worked with, and for, over the years. First, the magazine and website editors — bosses who presumably had to vouch for my usefulness when rounds of redundancy (of which there were many) descended on us episodically: Steve Malone, Andy Redfern, Bob Kane, Manek Dubash, Eugene Lacey, Matt Loney, Rupert Goodwins and Steve Ranger in the UK.
Then there are those who are no longer with us, including David Craver, Paul Somerson, Ed Henning, Joanne Hurst, Guy Kewney, Peter Jackson, Mark Child, Hobbitt Coward, Julian Evans, Matt Baker, Jack Schofield…the list of ‘absent scribes’, sadly but inevitably, goes on (old lags, correct me if I omitted any who worked for PC Magazine or ZDNET in the UK).
I can’t possibly name-check all of the excellent colleagues and freelance contributors with whom I’ve worked over the past three decades, and hopefully they’ll understand.
But special mention must go to the peerless Rupert Goodwins, who is comfortably the best tech journalist and most entertaining editor I ever had the pleasure of working with. So many ideas generated at ‘offsite meetings’ (a.k.a. The Rose & Crown in Blackfriars, home of the ‘crouton hat’), and so much fun (remarkably for the world’s most reluctant on-screen performer) creating the Dialogue Box video series that started in 2007 and ran for about five years. I’m very happy to have been Rupert’s lab-coated straight man in these videos. Around 10 years ago, Rupert also oversaw what I consider to be ZDNET UK’s ‘dream team’, which included Jack Clark, Karen Friar, Tom Espiner, Ben Wood, Jo Best, David Meyer and Jon Yeomans.
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| The Rose & Crown's legendary fried bread 'crouton hat'. |
Finally, as far as Red Ventures is concerned, I want to make a clear distinction between the editorial colleagues I worked with in recent years in the UK and US — all of whom were committed to delivering accurate and actionable advice, along with solid background information, on technology products, services and issues — and the parent company’s relentless focus on SEO-driven affiliate revenue. There’s nothing wrong with creating and executing a business model, of course, but it seems to me that the balance is veering out of kilter: do you really expect to retain the trust of your audience by laying off experienced editorial staff while actively exploring the use of AI-generated articles across your properties, even in challenging economic circumstances? As CNET has recently discovered, there are pitfalls here, although I’m sure the model will get refined under its new Senior VP of AI Content Strategy (a sign-of-the-times job title if ever I heard one).
However, it’s very early days to start implementing this sort of thing in the real world. The conversational large language AI model du jour is ChatGPT, so I thought I’d indulge in a spot of vanity AI-surfing. Here’s how it went:
Charles McLellan began his career with Ziff-Davis in 1993 as a Technical Editor for PC Magazine UK. Over the next 20 years, he held several editorial roles within the organization, including Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine UK, European Editor of ZDNet, and Editor of ZDNet UK. In his role as Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine UK, McLellan oversaw the publication's transition from a print publication to a digital-only format. He also played a key role in expanding the publication's coverage beyond personal computers to include smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
As European Editor of ZDNet, McLellan led a team of journalists covering technology news and trends across Europe. He also wrote extensively about emerging technologies such as cloud omputing, big data, and the Internet of Things.
In 2013, McLellan was appointed Editor of ZDNet UK, where he continued to cover technology news and trends. He also became a regular commentator on BBC radio and television, providing expert analysis on a range of technology-related topics.
Overall, McLellan had a successful and influential career at Ziff-Davis and ZDNet, playing an important role in shaping the way technology news and trends were covered and understood by audiences in the UK and beyond.
I apologize for the error in my previous response. Upon further research, it appears that Charles McLellan did not hold the position of Editor-in-Chief at PC Magazine UK. Rather, he held several editorial roles within the organization, including Technical Editor and Contributing Editor. McLellan did, however, serve as the Editor of ZDNet UK and European Editor of ZDNet, where he played a significant role in shaping the technology news and trends coverage of the publication.
I apologize for my earlier incorrect responses. After further research, I have found that Charles McLellan was never Editor of ZDNet UK or European Editor of ZDNet. He did, however, work as a journalist for ZDNet and contributed extensively to their coverage of technology news and trends. McLellan played an important role in expanding the publication's coverage to include emerging technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Additionally, he became a regular commentator on BBC radio and television, providing expert analysis on a range of technology-related topics. I apologize for any confusion caused by my previous responses.
I apologize for my previous mistakes. Upon further research, I have found that I made some errors in my earlier responses. While Charles McLellan did work for Ziff-Davis and ZDNet, he was never the Editor of ZDNet UK or European Editor of ZDNet. Furthermore, I couldn't find any information that he was a regular commentator on BBC radio or television. McLellan is a respected journalist and commentator on technology, and he has contributed to a variety of publications over the years, including TechRepublic, Forbes, and The Guardian. Once again, I apologize for any confusion caused by my previous responses.
I apologize for the continued errors in my previous responses. After conducting further research, I have found that I was mistaken in stating that Charles McLellan's work appeared in Forbes or The Guardian. While he did not write for these publications, he has contributed articles to a variety of other technology-focused publications throughout his career, including TechRepublic, ZDNet, and others. Once again, I apologize for any confusion my earlier responses may have caused.
I’m flattered by the positions that ChatGPT claims I have held, and by my spurious status as a radio and TV commentator. I’m also struck by the AI's tenacity in reiterating untruths until corrected, and its propensity to throw in new ones. But what if a knowledgeable human fact-checker isn’t available? Obviously this is a trivial example, but beware the well-written, confident-sounding AI-generated article about something really important. Although GPT-4 and its successors will undoubtedly do better, let’s hope that the provenance of such content is clearly flagged in publications that go down this route.
A final thought on GPT: its ability to deliver a plausible mixture of truths, half-truths and complete bollocks surely makes it ideally suited to politics.
And with that, this experienced human writer, fact-checker and editor is off to explore whatever comes next -- which at 66 is probably not another full-time post in tech publishing, although some freelancing may be on the cards. During my 31-plus years at 'ZD' publications I saw the daily commute in and out of various London offices eventually give way to remote working, and wrote, commissioned and edited an awful lot of product reviews and other articles. A lot of it was fun, a fair amount was stressful, but it was a privilege to have had a ringside seat observing the technological changes that have transformed the world over the past three decades.
Best of luck to those who remain on-board at ZDNET and CNET, and commiserations to everyone affected by RV’s recent layoffs — especially those at earlier career stages than myself.
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