The Beginnings of CNET in 1993

Holed up in an office in NYC

Inside our office door at 230 Park Avenue, Suite 100, were crammed three desks -- Halsey Minor, Shelby Bonnie and Bettina Cisneros.  On one wall was a piece of paper with a list called the "CNET Deities" which included people who had been nice to us.  On the inside of the door which you couldn't see when the door was open was our "Wall of Shame".  The top of the list was Paul Allen, he had recently announced he would be launching a 24-hour cable network focused on "computers".  That was also our plan, we were sure it was stolen from us and he had no business pursuing this idea. His inclusion on the list would be ironic because his investment in 1994 would be critical to our survival and success.

During the summer, we added another smaller office and a recent Harvard graduate, Matthew Barzun.  He was my cousin though we had never met.  We offered him $15,000 per year which even then was well below a livable wage , but we did let him pick his title.  He chose "Director of Innovation".  As a team member, it might have been one of the best decisions we would ever make.  He knew nothing which put him pretty close to our collective knowledge.

This office was one of those shared business spaces from Alliance Business Centers. There was a receptionist who when the phone would ring would answer as if she worked for whatever named popped up on her screen, “Hi, this is cnet: the computer network.” There was a nice conference room and folks assumed we were rather important with these fancy offices. We never let anyone back to our actual offices risk losing the illusion. We shared space with a large collection of misfits. It included a woman who sold billboards, man trying to import titanium from Russia for bicycles, and a bunch of random sales people. We actually fit right in.

The original vision was pretty clear.  In a time of "500 cable channels", we wanted to launch a channel dedicated to "computers and digital technology".  Our big idea was that we would also have a companion online service which would provide the depth to our stories.  If we reviewed 100 PCS, we would do a three minute clip for TV showing the top recommendations and have a database of all 100 reviews online.  At that time to describe online was to describe Prodigy, CompuServe and a relatively small service called America Online.

As obvious as that idea seems now, people thought it made no sense at that time.  "Who would possibly have a computer in the same room as your TV?"  "People like photography but there is no photography channel."

As time went on it became increasingly obvious launching a channel would be incredibly difficult, so we thought maybe launching shows would be easier.  The obvious home for us was Discovery Channel, but meetings there took us nowhere.  In the summer of 1993, we finally found someone who would at least express interest, CNBC.  In hindsight, they were asking us to pay infomercial prices and equity for time that otherwise was empty.  I think the number was around $5mm a year. We met in Fort Hills, NJ with David Zaslav , Chris Glowacki and Josh Grotstein.  In think it was Chris’s first day at work. We put together a rough agreement and got going.  This would later turn into a legal skirmish and we will have more on that later.

Early on we hired Pentagram to help us with both naming and brand design.  Halsey's original name was "CTV" standing for computer television.  Pentagram would recommend "cnet: the computer network".  It was meant to be a triple entendre: a tv network, a computer network and a network of people.  This is the original mark:

We hired Lee Hunt and Associates to produce the sizzle reel.  It is pretty amazing to watch now.  It is mostly clips from movies and advertisements.  The music and soundtrack is still burned into our collective brains.  In it you will see one piece of original content, a show called Laporte & Company staring Leo Laporte.  It costs us maybe $15,000 and will be important later on as we deal with our legal battle with CNBC.

Here is the sizzle reel:

I actually find it surprising how well this video held up. This was 1993. Computers were more of a business device. You had Internet dial-up that was incredibly slow and were dealing with services like Prodigy or CompuServe.

Through the year, we were working on a business plan to raise money and interest a large cable company into befriending us.  I was from the financial world so I was the keeper of the business plan.  This was the cover that we developed with Pentagram:

And here is an early draft of the business plan.  You will see my edits in the document. It is worth pointing out one page from the business plan to show how times would change over the next five years…..

In the Fall of 1993, we would officially launch at COMDEX, our disagreement with CNBC would come to a head and we would connect with Kevin Wendle.  Those stories are for next week.

Caveat: This is only my memory, so this story might very well change as we hear from others. You will likely see real time editing as we go. I will try to point it out where possible.