Technology news network ZDNet and Microsoft-meets-NBC online news service MSNBC are going to swap stories to try to bolster traffic.
ZDNet - owned by Ziff-Davis, which publishes PC Magazine, Inter@ctive Week, Computer Life, MacWEEK and others - is already delivering stock quotes and headlines to users via MSNBC's Personal News Alert. Now the two news providers are talking about developing a joint editorial department, as well as displaying each other's content. In the short term they will create joint reporting teams to cover next week's massive industry trade show, Comdex. Apparently no money will change hands for the story exchange.
"This is the future of these [content] deals where two partners think about how to complement our products without competing," says MSNBC general manager James Kinsella. According to a recent report by traffic tracker RelevantKnowledge, ZDNet ranks Number 12 among the highest-trafficked Web sites. MSNBC is 20th.
