Ziff Davis Media publishes a bunch of print magazine (including PC Magazine). Its sister company, Ziff Davis Internet, runs sites like Microsoft Watch and ExtremeTech. I work for a site called ZDNet. Both companies have ZD in their name, so they must be related, right?
Wrong.
Stephen Howard-Sarin, a VP at ZDNet and an 18-year veteran of this wacky industry, explains how it all started, many years ago:
Ziff Davis started an online division called ZDNet. Ziff Davis started a cable TV operation called ZDTV.
Ziff Davis split up. The magazine group kept the name. ZDNet was sold to CNET. ZDTV was rebranded TechTV (and later sold to G4).
Confusingly, many people through the years have worked for both companies. I was an editor at Ziff Davis’ PC Computing for nearly 10 years. I worked for TechRepublic before it was owned by CNET. Folks like Dan Farber and David Berlind and now Mary Jo Foley all worked at Ziff Davis back in the day and are now affiliated with ZDNet, part of CNET Networks, Inc.
It’s a tribute to the late Bill Ziff that the equity in his name is worth so much that none of these companies have given it up.
Ed Bott 
Yeah, oddly enough I’ve worked with both companies over the years and there was a point when I didn’t know who I was actually working for.
Great bunch of people!
I worked at Ziff-Davis Press the book publishing arm which was sold to Viacom. I remember doing a licensing arangement with ZDNet to do books. Alas, Macmillan shut Ziff-Davis Press down.
I am very glad that ZD Net is different to Ziff Davis, for their sakes !
Microsoft Watch is more like “Microsoft Bash” these days since Mary Jo Foley left and went to ZD Net.
I would not give you “two cents” for the current crop of writers (including Joe Wilcox and Scot Peterson in particular).