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ZDNet cuts U.S. bloggers as it refocuses on global coverage

ZDNet has cut several bloggers from its staff in the past few weeks as it continues to realign its organization into a global one.

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Business technology news site ZDNet has cut five bloggers from its staff in the past few weeks as it continues to realign its organization into a global one.

ZDNet has a long history of writing about the technology industry, and CNET acquired it for $1.6 billion in July 2000. In 2003, ZDNet refocused to more closely cover business technology. In May 2008, CBS Interactive purchased CNET, and since that time, ZDNet has existed as a combination of technology blog network and news outlet.

In July, ZDNet decided to combine all of its international sites into one editorial team (and one budget) and since that time, it has been focused on expanding into a global network. ZDNet currently has more than 80 bloggers contracted for its blog network and 40 full-time ZDNet staffers.

But with that shift comes cuts to its U.S. operations, and several of its bloggers have penned farewell posts lately. Today, Joel Evans — the co-founder of Geek.com and a long-time gadget writer at ZDNet — said his goodbye.

“Today is my last day writing for ZDNet,” Evans wrote. “I wanted to write a personal thank you to you, the readers, and to my coauthor, Matt Miller, and of course the fine folks at ZDNet, including my editor, David Grober. ZDNet has given me a place to call home, where I could write about anything I wanted, anytime I wanted.”

Additional U.S. bloggers that wrote goodbyes include virtualization writer Paula Rooney and developer-focused blogger Ed Burnette. Others that were let go but did not write farewells include security expert Dancho Danchev and SEO writer Stephen Chapman. Enterprise tech veteran Dennis Howlett departed recently on his own terms.

ZDNet editor-in-chief Larry Dignan told VentureBeat that he “prunes” the blog network every quarter, but he is also hiring in other countries to make up for it. Dignan said that five people have been hired in India this quarter and he’ll hire more writers in Asia in the next few months. The company also recently expanded its coverage in Europe.

“We’re going from a U.S. focus to a global focus,” Dignan said. “We have to be more global. There’s no way around it.”

Dignan said that ZDNet also has to differentiate itself from the CNET’s content. He said ZDNet has done that with its coverage of categories such as “‘big data’ and analytics, data centers, enterprise software, CXO, and enterprise startups.”

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