CBS Kills CNET Music Site It Never Launched

One way for a big media company to avoid the embarrassment of shutting down a Web site–just avoid launching it altogether. That’s what CBS has done with “Juke,” a music site that CNET had started assembling last spring and planned to launch this fall.

Somewhere along the line those plans have been scrapped, and the five people who were working on the site (now for CBS, which bought CNET for $1.8 billion this summer) have been laid off. Among them: Craig Marks, a music writing vet who once edited Spin and Blender (where he threw me a couple freelance assignments, if I remember correctly).

Idolator’s Maura Johnston alerted us to the story, and we’ve asked CNET for details, etc. But for now this blog post from former Juke employee Tom Breihan will suffice:

Hey, remember that secret website I was going to do? Well, I’m not. I just got laid off, along with the other four people working here. CBS, who bought CNET, are killing the thing, for reasons that might have something to do with them dumping truckloads of money into Last.FM and might also have something to do with we’re in a f—ing great depression. Awesome. So: new plan. Starting tomorrow, I am going to start beasting the freelance circuit. If you’ve got work, please give me some. (Also give some to Ryan Dombal and Andy Greenwald. But give me more.)”

[Image Credit: Jennaddenda]

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