Shelby Bonnie's Taking A Swig At Online Media, Again

(PaidContent.org)  This story was written by Rafat Ali.

---

Shelby Bonnie's CNET (NSDQ: CNET) chapter officially closed for good earlier this year, as the company he led for six years was sold to CBS (NYSE: CBS). Now he is back with his new online media startup Whisky Media, a publisher of vertical sites focused on different topics. We wrote about the first one, PoliticalBase, last year...the site is an ambitious online info, database and community site focused on politics on all levels nationally. From there on, he has taken that mixture of data and community and applied to two other sites: ComicVine, about comic books, and just launched another, GiantBomb, about computer games.

And unlike CNET, he wants to keep it small, as he tells NYT. "Our goal is we want to remain less than 10 people...it has become a great constraint that forces us to do smart stuff." Among those include Jeff Gerstmann, the main editor of the game site, who was a long-time editor at CNet's Gamespot, and left amidst some controversy. The other CNET executives: Mike Tatum, former GM of Lifestyle at CNET Networks; David Snider, who used to run TV.com; Ethan Lance; and Andy McCurdy.

Bonnie said that the company hopes to start another three sites this year, all focused on males between 13 and 30.


By Rafat Ali