Whiskey Media

On March 15, 2012, Whiskey Media was acquired by Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman's BermanBraun along with Tested, Screened, and Anime Vice while Giant Bomb and Comic Vine were bought separately by CBS Interactive.

[4] Joining Bonnie and business partner Mike Tatum were former CNET programmers Andy McCurdy, Sean Coonce, Ethan Lance, and Dave Snider.

[5] This began a chain reaction in which Ryan Davis, Alex Navarro, Brad Shoemaker and Vinny Caravella would leave after the incident.

This led to Whiskey Media and Gerstmann getting in touch with each other and with Ryan Davis they created the video game website, Giant Bomb, which Caravella, Shoemaker, and Navarro later went to work for.

[6] In an interview with The New York Times, Bonnie explained that creating a small staffed company as opposed to CNET was a, "great constraint that forces us to do smart stuff."

[15] March 2012 saw the end of Whiskey Media's independence when All Things Digital reported that Bonnie had sold the company to Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun's BermanBraun.

', a live streaming event that lasted seven hours, showcasing video content in order to promote the launch of paid memberships.

After interviewing for his replacement, it was announced on May 30, 2015 that Austin Walker would be joining Giant Bomb as News Editor, and would be working from the New York office.

Prior to the creation of Whiskey Media, Dave Snider, Ethan Lance and Tony Guerrero launched ComicVine.com on December 6, 2006.

At the time Snider and Lance were creating websites for others as part of the co-founded Enemy Kite while Guerrero was a high-school math teacher.

While Snider and Lance built the site Guerrero began to collect data and convert it into what would become the first Whiskey Media wiki-database.

Editorial features include Guerrero's Off My Mind segment, discussing comic book speculation,[33] the ethics, methods and practicalities of superheroes and supervillains[34] and comparisons of current trends, costumes and story arcs with older counterparts.

[36] Notable comic book writer James Robinson was a recurring guest on the podcast, providing a deep insight into DC characters.

Comic Vine established a presence at major conventions such as San Diego Comic-Con and its New York and Long Beach equivalents, interviewing important industry figures such as Stan Lee (on multiple occasions),[39][40] Grant Morrison[41] and Gail Simone.

They included the It Came from my Instant Queue segment[58] and the weekly DVD Release List[59] as well as news featuring a potential Bad Boys 3 movie[60] and plans for Transformers 3.

[63] Also included at launch was the first Behind the Screened Door podcast, featuring Navarro, Rorie, intern Matt Lopez and Giant Bomb's Ryan Davis.

[64] Video features, produced by Joey Fameli, included The Besties, Screened's hall of fame,[65] Defending Your Movie, a series to showcase movies that may have not gained critical or commercial success, but have aspects that make them worth watching,[66] and Remake Rematch, pitting one or more remakes against their respective originals.

[67] Screened also has articles by freelance writers such as Tom Pinchuk's recurring Welcome To Weird, which range from body horror films like Videodrome to Japanese TV advertisements starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Users who have gained one-thousand wiki points or more on either Giant Bomb, Comic Vine or Anime Vice (therefore allowing them to by-pass wiki-entry moderation) are automatically given one-thousand points on Screened in order to promote high quality entry submitting into the database as soon as possible as well as lightening the load on the Screened wiki-moderators.

[86] Each Whiskey Media website that produces video content has a featured online channel on Roku streaming devices.

[91] All Whiskey Media websites have an emphasis on small editorial teams with a large amount of community content creation.

[92] Each brand has customised sections in their respective databases, ranging from videogames franchises,[93] anime series,[94] comics characters,[95] and movie clichés.

[102] Their second advertisement quest set, during July 2011, was in association with Turner Broadcasting System's Adult Swim, promoting the NTSF:SD:SUV:: (National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle::) show.

The final quest involved users watching a NTSF:SD:SUV:: live stream viewing party, featuring an interview with Paul Scheer.

[103] Using an upgraded format from traditional text-based FAQs that allows users to "add images, video & tables into our advanced editor that builds a table of contents for you on the fly", the guides on Giant Bomb allow FAQs to be created that detail cheats, in-game achievements, quests and entire games.

The paid subscription service includes HD Video that is available in streaming, progressive or download, HTML5-based mobile sites and access to a live Friday show.

Users who choose to pay per-annum will receive everything that is included in the Monthly subscription service plus no viewable advertisements and a custom T-shirt.

To track site metrics on video-viewing, or wiki and trivia submissions, the Whiskey Media developers created a set of analytical tools known as "Metrimatics".

Andy McCurdy cited its batch processing functionality "which encoded more than two terabytes of our back catalog" in 720p high definition in under two hours.

"[113] Whiskey Media's method of content created by its users through community tools has been praised for the way it "increases the popularity of the site[s] and gives the business more potential revenue.

Big Live LIVE Show: Live! - Ryan Davis as host (seated right) with the staff and guests of Whiskey Media