When CBS acquired CNET back in May 2008, it not only scooped up the last great stand-alone Web 1.0 company, but in one fell swoop transformed its CBS Interactive division into a serious online player. From June to July 2008 – the first month CNET was rolled into the overall CBS Corporation parent property – the number of unique visitors more than doubled (+114%) and continued to expand through November to a peak of 53.5 million. CBS Interactive is now the 11^th largest online property and reaches nearly one-third (31.6%) of all active users. More importantly, the addition of the CNET audience intensifies CBS Interactive’s reach of the coveted young, professional men target.

The digital group is now organized into five vertical categories – Tech and News (CNET.com, CBSNews.com), Business (BNET, TechRepublic, ZDNet), Games, Music and Lifestyle (GameSpot, Last.fm, Juke, Metacritic, CHOW, UrbanBaby), Entertainment (CBS.com, CBS Audience Network, TV.com, The Insider, CBS Interactive Web Originals) and Sports (CBSSports.com, MaxPreps.com, NCAA.com, CBS College Sports) – with the first three verticals comprised primarily of sites acquired as part of the CNET deal. These three should continue to contribute through their natural growth, but what is really exciting is what’s happening with the other two.

From Fall 2007 through the first half of Q1 2008, CBS Interactive saw a serious drop-off in visitors. To counter that trend this year, the Entertainment vertical’s “Web Originals” has a number of interesting new online-only series slated for Q1 2009. The first, a scripted series called “Heckle-U” expected to roll out in February with Tom Arnold and Owen Benjamin (”Punk’d”), is intended to prime the pump for the “March Madness” traffic bump. This 10-episode short form series, about an underachiever who excels at heckling during college basketball games, will include product integration from Procter & Gamble.

Other original Webisodes are to follow, including “Novel Adventures,” from TV veteran Jonathan Prince, and “Stephen King’s N,” a motion-comic adaptation of a short story from the best-selling horror writer that CBS produced with publisher Simon & Schuster. No one knows how much actual audience these original content forays will generate, but they are definitely the sort of innovative, buzz-worthy marketing integrations advertisers are looking for from media companies. If CBS can pull these off successfully while maintaining CNET’s momentum and riding the surge of “March Madness,” 2009 will be a banner year for the Tiffany Network.