• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, July 8, 2008 9:33 AM

As media companies frantically seek to re-invent themselves, two industry chiefs--Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, and Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal--offer telling contrasts. WSJ blogger Evan Newmark says Moonves may have outshone Zucker as a TV programming executive, but lately tables have turned.

Moonves paid $1.8 billion to buy CNET, a troubled Internet property aimed at tech geeks, while Zucker pays $3.5 billion for the Weather Channel, the premier weather media property aimed at everyman. Moonves pays a 45% premium for CNET. Zucker pays a 30% discount on the asking $5 billion price.

Newmark goes on to compare Moonves' use of his company's cash for the CNET deal to Zucker using other people's money for his cable purchase. Topping it off, Zucker says the Weather Channel will add to NBC's earnings right from the start. Moonves' CNET is seen as a question mark.

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