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Editor's Blog: Goodbye silicon.com - and thanks
It's the end of an era...

By Tony Hallett

Published: Thursday 08 November 2007

I'm just finishing up my time as editor and site director for silicon.com, ending a direct relationship that goes back over nine years, to the conception as well as birth of this publication in 1998.

I'm not going far - I'm becoming editorial director for the business titles at CNET Networks UK, the publisher of silicon.com among other titles - but it feels like it's been quite a ride.

I took over the reigns here in the spring of 2003, still in the downturn that followed the heady days of the dot-com boom. The silicon.com team at that earlier time, where I was first a reporter then a features editor, was part of that boom and students of it.

I can't say the last few years have felt so heady but they have seen a recovery in the tech market generally and, with that, the ability and opportunity for these pages to do more and more.

If I look back at some of our progress in the recent past I'd single out:

- the rebuilding of the silicon.com editorial team, to the extent that it has won several awards over the past few years.

- a close focus on core readers, coming up with formats such as CIO Jury, as well as covering wider tech issues.

- several site redesigns (the latest happened last week), embracing multimedia fully - I remember the days of video-over-the-web in the late 1990s only now more people are able to watch our video as well as download/stream podcasts and click through photo stories.

- special reports from key new markets such as China and India that saw us turn up a number of exclusives - did I already mention the team winning awards for this?

- our best audience figures to date - three-quarters of a million of you registering around four million page impressions (so said ABCe at the time of our last audit).

- the creation of an editorial board which we regularly turn to for input.

- the yearly silicon.com CIO Forum, now a vibrant community for the biggest IT users in the UK, and silicon.com's involvement in the CNET Networks Business Technology Awards.

So that's all the on-message stuff. What do I really think? I can reel off a list of facts and achievements (you might not refer to them as that) like I just have but my gut instinct is that silicon.com has kept on progressing, kept on saying what it thinks (who does write that damn Weekly Round-Up?) and normally does all that without being afraid to have some fun.

I leave the site as it goes through a revamp and with a team that - as you'd expect right now - is seeing some new faces and some changes.

With all that said I can now hand you over to silicon.com's new editor, Steve Ranger, who officially takes the hot seat today. For those of you that don't know him, Steve has most recently been the news editor on the title and brings plenty of qualities to his new role. I know silicon.com is in safe hands and expect it to outshine any of the progress we've made to date.

I'd like to say a big thank you to our readers, silicon.com colleagues from down the years and everyone else who has supported the publication.

Best of luck, Steve, this page is now yours.