So, this is absolutely not GSW being snarky (well, OK, just a bit), but we were simultaneously fascinated and Spock-like eyebrow-ed to note, as part of CNET's financial results debuting today, that the parent company of GameSpot put out the following announcement:

"CNET Networks announced today that Stephen Colvin, former president and chief executive officer of Dennis Publishing, publisher of Maxim, Stuff and Blender magazines, is joining the company as executive vice president. Colvin will be dedicated to overseeing the company’s entertainment and lifestyle properties, which include leading brands such as GameSpot, TV.com, MP3.com, CHOW, and UrbanBaby... During his time at Dennis Publishing, Colvin was responsible for the creation and launch of numerous publications, including Maxim magazine, which has grown to be the best selling men’s lifestyle magazine in the U.S. and the world."

Here's the internal memo announcing the change, among others. I guess overall this is a good organizational move, and you know, Maxim.com's video game section really isn't that bad, but it's sometimes bizarre to me how the bite-sized, not particularly challenging journalism and babe galleries that Maxim and Stuff espouse could be waved as a flag to usher in a brave new age for CNet.

Having said that, Blender's a pretty good magazine, and Dennis Publishing started up Your Sinclair in the '80s, so that's pretty much a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card there. So maybe I should ease up a little. But I'd be interested to see if there are any attempts to 'sex up' GameSpot in its future, in terms of getting it to appeal to a more mainstream male audience. That's certainly how Dennis Publishing evolved from a computer magazine publisher in the '90s, at least - and other folks seem to have a similar idea, eh?