It's been a busy week for CNET Networks (NASDAQ:CNET). First, the company behind popular Internet sites like Gamespot and Webshots announced that it may have to restate past financial statements in order to correct improprieties related to the far-reaching backdating options scandal. Then the company announced a deal with publisher McGraw-Hill to release a series of 14 books for consumers looking to curl up with meaty reads on home-market technology.
One way or another, CNET is hitting the books. It's looking to write new ones with McGraw-Hill and rewrite old ones with its auditor.
The publishing deal is interesting. CNET has been trying to deemphasize its offline content, in order to shine the spotlight on its faster-growing online advertising business. Earlier this year, the company sold off its Computer Shopper magazine.
I spoke to CEO Shelby Bonnie about the move at the time, and he claimed that the company's stateside print business just wasn't a strategic fit for the company. Asia was the one market in which CNET was growing its publishing presence, given the unique opportunities in the booming region.
CNET isn't the only Rule Breakers newsletter service recommendation to mix its stodgy print business with the greater potential of online content. The Knot (NASDAQ:KNOT) has also been keeping its bridal magazines going, despite the surge in Web-based advertising and referrals. For The Knot, it's a move to keep offline giant CondeNast honest. For CNET, taking an editorial role in the new book series is about extending its brand.
CNET's namesake site has become a hub of consumer-electronics news and reviews. Even Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), in mapping out a competing site, has ultimately turned to CNET as a content partner.
Let's hope that CNET's future as a bookseller is more about penning new books than rewriting erroneous financial ones. You know, the books that end happily ever after.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article. He is a member of the Rule Breakers analytical team, seeking out the next great growth stock early in its stage of defiance. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors .
