CNET's BNET digs into new sectors, goes overseas

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) - Online media company CNET Networks Inc (CNET.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which is fighting a dissident shareholder group, is digging deeper into business coverage with plans to debut in-depth news and information on 11 industry sectors on its business manager Web site BNET.com.

The company said on Tuesday that it will launch BNET Industries (http://industry.bnet.com), a free compilation of original news, blogs and analysis as well as news from various content partners, to cover subjects such as health care, media, financial services, food, energy and travel.

CNET also said that BNET will debut local Web sites for Australia and the United Kingdom at www.bnetau.com.au and www.bnet.co.uk.

BNET Industries is designed to give business managers information that can be hard to locate in one place, said Greg Mason, CNET's senior vice president of the business media group.

"You look at a lot of the content that's available, it still predominantly lives in trade journal articles," he said. "And then there's a lot of content that's sort of housed behind subscription firewalls. And so, consequently, it's very fragmented."

There are good online newsletters that cover specific industries, he said, "but they're sort of hit-or-miss."

BNET Industries will feature content from about 15 bloggers, including former Wall Street Journal health-care and pharmaceutical reporter David Hamilton, Mason said.

The site will include information on more than 9,000 public companies, including business sector information, e-mail and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) alerts and blogs. News and analysis also will come from partners such as Mergent, StrategyEye, Seeking Alpha and Reuters Group PLC RTR.L.