Why BroBible's staff bought the website back from the media company that had acquired it
Publisher Brandon Wenerd explained how breaking free of BroBible's parent company allowed it to adapt to the current media climate.
When the staff behind BroBible bought their company back in 2018, the move felt less like a business transaction and more like a band reuniting after years under the wrong label. The site had spent several years inside a venture-funded media holding company, gaining access to resources but losing the scrappy, independent identity that first helped it stand out in the late 2000s blogosphere.
Today, BroBible employs 16 people, has diversified revenue across programmatic advertising, events, and branded social content, and continues to serve a loyal readership that has followed it from their college dorm rooms into middle age. As publisher Brandon Wenerd puts it, “We built a direct rapport with our audience, and that rapport was really what accelerated our business.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Wenerd walked through BroBible’s early blogging days, its complicated relationship with its former parent company, and how reacquiring the site gave its small team permission to rebuild — this time with the lessons of the past decade firmly in mind.
Falling into Media Through Hunter S. Thompson
Wenerd’s path into digital publishing wasn’t linear. His first gig in media was working as a research assistant for Anita Thompson, Hunter S. Thompson’s widow. By chance, a college essay and an early-era blog comment led to correspondence with her.
“She had a blog and I just kind of took a chance,” he recalled. “I sent her this paper… and then asked, hey, is there anything you’re looking for help on?”