CNET Changes Quarterbacks: Dan Farber Takes Over As Editor In Chief
Big news at CNET today - editor in chief Jai Singh is out, and Dan Farber, most recently the editor in chief of CNET-owned ZDNet, is taking over. In his new role, Dan will oversee the editorial content and user experience for CNET News.
Context & Ripple Effects
TechCrunch reports that CNET has swapped out its top editor: Jai Singh is out, and Dan Farber — until now editor in chief of CNET-owned ZDNet — takes charge of editorial content and user experience for CNET News. The move lands mid-wave of high-profile editorial handoffs across tech media, from PC Magazine's Passing the Torch moment in August 2007 to NewTeeVee's July 2007 look at Old Media Jumping to New Media, when print-bred editors were moving into web-native newsrooms.
The internal logic matters more than the personnel: rather than hiring outside, CNET promoted from within its own portfolio, effectively merging ZDNet leadership into CNET News. ZDNet itself marked the change same-day on Between the Lines ('Transition time at ZDNet'), so the transition was visible across both mastheads at once.
First-order effects
- ZDNet immediately needs a successor for its editor-in-chief seat while Dan Farber assumes oversight of both CNET News editorial direction and its user experience — a combined mandate spanning content and product.
- Jai Singh exits the top editorial role he held through CNET's blog-era expansion years.
Second-order effects
- With Farber straddling both properties, CNET's owned brands move toward shared editorial judgment, raising the question of how far CNET News and ZDNet converge versus keep distinct voices.
- Rival tech outlets watching the churn of 2007-08 editor moves face the same retention problem: experienced trade editors are being recycled between mastheads faster than new ones are being developed.
Third-order effects
- If promotion-within-the-portfolio becomes the default playbook, tech publishing consolidates editorial power inside parent companies, making individual masthead identities increasingly a function of corporate structure than of founding editors.
- The combined content-plus-user-experience mandate points toward editors being judged partly on product metrics — a structural shift from pure newsroom authority to platform stewardship.
The trend: Tech publishing's blog-era shakeout is concentrating editorial control within parent portfolios, trading star outside hires for internal promotions across owned brands.