Welcome to issue 7 of Dialogue, our newsletter for CNET Networks UK commercial partners.


June was a month of change for us at CNET Networks UK as we waved goodbye to Tom Bureau who decided to leave the company after 5 years in charge. I am delighted to be taking over the reins from Tom at such an exciting time for the company and the UK market and I look forward to continuing the growth we have enjoyed over the past five years and working with you to deliver innovative, effective marketing programmes.

As you will see, there is much to report in the company, and we are especially excited to announce the shortlist for this years’ CNET Networks UK Business Technology Awards which will be held on 24th September at the London Hilton on Park Lane. We hope you will be there to support the event in its 5th year.

I hope you find this update on what's new around our business useful. I would love to hear any suggestions you have on how we can make our newsletter more relevant for you - my email is jill.orr@cnet.com – please feel free to drop me a line with any comments or questions...

Many thanks for your ongoing support.

Jill Orr, UK Managing Director

We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Jill Orr, our new managing director. Jill joined CNET Networks UK in 1998 and has been a member of the UK board of directors since 2002. Jill was previously the head of consumer publishing, a position she held for the last three years . As head of consumer publishing Jill was responsible for launching CNET.co.uk and GameSpot UK , and building up the commercial and product portfolio for consumer. Jill has been with CNET Networks UK for eight years . She was initially responsible for business development across Europe and then moved to head up product development for the UK business, overseeing the re-launch of both silicon.com and ZDNet.co.uk in 2003. Jill has over 11 years of experience in digital publishing, including 3 years working for IDG based in San Francisco. Today, Jill is an active member of several industry associations, and sits on the board of both the OPA Europe and the UK Association of Online Publishing.

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CNET Networks UK's office move in April saw the opening of our brand new CNET Direct call centre. Since the UK launch of CNET Direct 4 years ago, we have been running multi-lingual outbound telemarketing as part of our integrated direct marketing campaigns to our database. We have successfully run campaigns in 18 languages in Europe as well as targeting in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and the US. Our new state of the art 60-seat call centre represents a 50% increase in capacity from our previous premises enabling us to conduct high quality telemarketing activity of any size and duration on behalf of our clients. Telemarketing is carried out to our database of opted in CNET Networks contacts, enriched and profiled on an ongoing basis. With a dedicated tele-operations team we are able to ensure the highest levels of recruitment, training and quality in addition to a rigorous quality assurance and quality checking process across all campaigns. The campaign management team offers dedicated campaign resource and support. Our fully automated dialing platform integrates our database and phone systems, allowing us to accurately monitor agent performance tracking and campaign reporting both real-time and historical. We fully cater for our culturally diverse international telemarketers with a forward thinking open plan office environment, dedicated kitchen, training rooms, meeting rooms, a break-out area and a pool table, as well as sports competitions, incentive schemes and monthly lunches. To find out more about how you can benefit from CNET Direct’s unrivalled telemarketing services please contact Diana Abebrese on 020 7021 1053 or email diana.abebrese@direct.cnet.com

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In May, ZDNet.co.uk launched group blogging, making it one of the first B2B online publications to, offer this feature. Group blogs are a place where ZDNet.co.uk members can write on a specific subject alongside their peers, enabling IT managers to come together and share experience and best practice advice about important issues. Current topics under debate in the community blogging forums include mobile working, security management and Windows Vista. Through the group blogs advertisers can connect with a highly targeted and engaged audience that is passionate about a specific subject. Vendors can play an active part in the group with their involvement clearly signalled to readers. This lets them engage with the ZDNet.co.uk community and create a direct dialogue with potential customers. To promote the launch of group blogs, ZDNet.co.uk is running a Blogger-at-large competition. The winner will be the person who makes the best contribution to the group blogs as judged by ZDNet.co.uk's editorial team, and they will receive a high-spec Lenovo ThinkPad with Centrino Pro and a trip to the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco. The chosen blogger will be named blogger-at-large and will report exclusively on the IDF on behalf of ZDNet.co.uk. To find out more about the potential advertising opportunities, contact the ZDNet.co.uk sales team on 020 7021 1018.

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We’d like to congratulate the finalists of the 2007 CNET Networks UK Business Technology Awards. We received many outstanding entries this year, reflecting the how the UK technology industry continues to go from strength to strength. This year’s finalists include big names such as IBM, Cisco, Credit Suisse, Vodafone, L’Oreal and Betfair. Click here to discover the full list of companies, organisations and individuals who have been selected for their outstanding achievements in business technology. The winners will be announced at a networking dinner and awards ceremony at the London Hilton on Park Lane on 24 September. Atended by over 600 guests, the evening brings together the elite of the business technology industry. We hope you’ll be able to join us for this evening of networking, entertainment and celebration. Click here to book your tickets now.

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To be successful in their careers, IT decision-makers have an ongoing need to understand where they stand in relation to their peers and competitors; they need to be able to measure how their business is changing over time. CNET Networks UK now has the answer having recently launched benchmarking surveys on silicon.com and ZDNET.co.uk. Focusing on server value, mobile PC security and management, and desktop management and energy consumption, our benchmarking surveys help organisations to do a quick IT health-check; they provide a percentage out of 100 as well as providing the average for other survey respondents. The results can provide IT managers with the data they need to argue for additional investment in new IT solutions or confirm that their investment strategy in new technology is working. The overall results of the survey, which is managed by CNET Networks UK in partnership with the Bathwick Group, will be compiled at the end of July and a white paper will be produced on the findings of each benchmark, providing an insight into the IT market. Contact sales@zdnet.co.uk if you would like to receive a copy of the final report. The benchmarking surveys provide advertisers with a strong opportunity for reaching an engaged senior IT audience. Our launch sponsor is Intel; each of the benchmarking areas supports Intel's products and are aligned with Intel's key platforms. The results provide Intel with user engagement and highlight positive comments or potential opportunities. For more information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Gavin Scothern on 020 7021 1021 or e-mail gavin.scothern@cnet.com.

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