The Hollywood Reporter
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The Hollywood Reporter was one of two major trade publications of the film industry in the United States during the last century — the other being Variety. Today both newspapers cover what is now more broadly called the entertainment industry.
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[edit] History
The Hollywood Reporter was the entertainment industry's first daily trade paper in Hollywood. It began as a daily film publication, then added television coverage in the 1950s and began in the late 1980s to cover all intellectual property industries.
[edit] Founder
In September 1930, former film salesman William R. "Billy" Wilkerson published the debut issue of The Hollywood Reporter. The banner headline read, "INDIE REVOLUTION." Studio chieftains were stunned, with one famous company going so far as to make bonfires of the latest editions.
Wilkerson became helped develop the Sunset Strip and launch Cafe Trocadero and Ciro's. He was part of the early stages of development of the Flamingo Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, partnering at one point with gangster Bugsy Siegel, but was allegedly bought out before the hotel opened when he was 'made an offer he couldn't refuse.'
[edit] Ownership changes
Wilkerson ran The Hollywood Reporter until his death in 1962, when his wife, Tichi Wilkerson, took over as publisher and editor-in-chief. She sold the paper in the late 1980s to trade publishers BPI. Teri Ritzer was the last editor under Wilkerson. She began the paper's modernization by bringing newspaper editors into what was essentially a Hollywood wannabe newsroom. BPI's publisher, Robert J. Dowling, brought in Alex Ben Block in 1990 and editorial quality of both news and specials was steadily improved. Ritzer and Block dampened much of the rah-rah coverage and cronyism that had infected the paper under Wilkerson. After Alex Ben Block left, former film editor at Variety, Anita Busch, was brought in as editor between 1999 and 2001. Busch was credited with making the paper competitive with Variety. Dowling helmed the paper until he was forced to retire during corporate changes in late 2005. Tony Uphoff assumed the publisher position in November 2005. The Reporter was acquired, along with the rest of the assets of VNU, in spring 2006 by a private equity consortium led by Blackstone and KKR, both with ties to the conservative movement in the United States. Uphoff was replaced in October, 2006 by John Kilcullen, who was the publisher of Billboard. Matthew King, VP for content and audience, and editorial director Howard Burns left the paper in a wave of layoffs in December 2006; editor Cynthia Littleton, widely respected throughout the industry, reported directly to Kilcullen. The Reporter absorbed another blow when Littleton left her position for an editorial job at arch nemesis, Variety in March, 2007. Web editor, Glenn Abel, also walked after 16 years with the paper.
In January 2007 VNU was purchased by a private equity consortium and renamed The Nielsen Company, whose properties include Billboard, AdWeek and [[A.C. Nielsen]. Under its new leadership, Nielsen is reported to have made a $5 million investment in The Reporter[1]
In April 2007 industry veteran Eric Mika was named to the newly-created role of Senior Vice President, Publishing Director of The Reporter. Having previously served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Nielsen Business Media’s Film and Performing Arts Group and, before that, as Vice President and Managing Director for Variety, Mika assumed responsibility for the general management of sales, marketing and editorial for The Hollywood Reporter, as well as the brand’s ancillary products, events, licensing business and partnerships [2]
In June 2007, Rose Einstein, former Vice President, Advertising Sales for Netflix and 25-year veteran of Reed Business Media, was named to the newly-created role of Vice President, Associate Publisher to oversee all sales and business development for The Reporter.[3]
Then in July 2007 The Reporter named Elizabeth Guider as its new Editor. An 18-year veteran of Variety, where she served as Executive Editor, Guider assumed responsibility for the editorial vision and strategic direction of The Hollywood Reporter’s daily and weekly editions, digital content offerings and executive conferences.[4]
[edit] Presence on the web
The Hollywood Reporter was the first daily entertainment trade to go online, in late 1995. Initially it was a premium service but competition forced it to become more reliant on ad sales and less on subscribers. The Reporter started archiving some news stories electronically in 1991 and published a primitive "satellite" digital edition in the late 1980s. The web site had already gone through several redesigns. In 2002, the Reporter's web site won the Jesse H. Neal Award for business journalism.
Other Reporter electronic products include U.S. and European daily email editions, a daily East Coast digital edition, a business podcast and a number of blogs, and a weekly Korean-language newsletter that reaches nearly 4,000 subscribers in Korea each day. In June 2007 The Reporter introduced The Hollywood Reporter, Digital Edition, an online electronic replica of the daily magazine, available in 12 languages, that also features text-to-voice conversion into six languages [5]. In October 2007 the publication launched THR Direct, a free application that provides subscribers with immediate delivery of customized news, alerts and video from The Hollywood Reporter to their desktop[6]
The Reporter was slow to modernize. The paper still used vintage IBM-styled selectric typewriters in several departments into the early 1990s and was sluggish in upgrading operations by adding common business equipment such as computers, scanners and color printers to all departments. Archival materials were routinely microfilmed as late as 1998 rather than digitized, even though the system to view it was in storage or broken. Interoffice email appeared only by the late 1990s as well. It was publisher Robert Dowling who was key in essentially dragging the paper into the 20th century just as it entered the 21st.
In the era of bloggers, cellphone cameras, 24/7 cable business news and the explosion of information outlets on the Internet, it is possible that one of the trades will take its daily publication completely on-line in the near future.
[edit] Current status and legacy
The Hollywood Reporter has been called an institution, (many who have worked there insist that it is) publishing out of the same offices on Sunset Boulevard for more than a half century, although by the 1970s the aging offices had become a time capsule more akin to the 1950s and the paper had clearly outgrown them. (Today, the offices are in L.A.'s Mid-Wilshire district.) Shirley MacLaine once paid a visit to the Sunset offices, marching up to a columnist and slapping him over an item he wrote[citation needed]. In 1962 Bette Davis took out an exclusive classified ad looking for work which only appeared in the Reporter[citation needed]. Game show host Bob Barker came in and personally placed ads in the paper[citation needed]. Even Tony Snow reads it. Many famous, not-so-famous and infamous people peruse the Reporter[citation needed].
In November 2007 The Reporter launched The Hollywood Reporter: Premiere Edition, a new day and date edition of the publication with daily morning delivery to subscribers in New York and key cities across the East Coast. As a result of the move to regional printing, the Premier Edition is also available on newsstands throughout Manhattan each morning from Monday through Friday
The Hollywood Reporter's conferences and award shows include the Key Art Awards, which aim to recognize the best in movie marketing and advertising. Its annual Women in Entertainment: Power 100 issue and event is a somewhat controversial if not subjective ranking of female entertainment executives. It’s annual “Next Generation” special issue and event honors 35 up-and-coming executives in entertainment that are 35 years or younger. The paper's influential celebrity marketability rating system, Star Power, will be published again in 2008, after a hiatus.
[edit] Editors and reporters today
The Hollywood Reporter has a staff of roughly 200. Today, editors and reporters numbers more than 60, with another 50 staffers scattered in key locales around the globe, having downsized when VNU absorbed BPI Communications in 2000. Like Daily Variety, the paper publishes only on weekdays, although the Reporter has a weekly international edition published each Friday and in the early 70's, briefly aired a TV show. It is interesting to note that during the golden age of Hollywood film and television, the Reporter was seldom staffed with more than 20 people. It was chiefly in the media boom of the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that the employee roster ballooned.
Staffing at the Reporter, after spiraling down for several years, began to steadily increase in 2007. In 2006, Tony Uphoff replaced Robert Dowling as publisher. Uphoff then announced his departure from the paper in October, 2006 after just nine months. In that period, Associate Publisher Lynne Segall, a bombastic, forceful and occasionally boorish fixture at the Reporter for two decades, was passed over and forced out, too. Replacing Uphoff from New York was John Kilcullen, who continued to be Publisher of Billboard magazine during the transition. As publisher of Billboard, he was sued in 2004 by two Billboard staffers for race discrimination and sexual harassment. Among other allegations, the suit also said Kilcullen compromised editorial integrity to appease advertisers. The company settled the case in 2006 as it was about to go to trial for an undisclosed amount.
At THR, Kilcullen wasted no time making changes as revenues were in steady decline. Editorial director Howard Burns was replaced after nearly 20 years, corporate content vp Matthew King was forced out along with eight other editorial and operations staffers in December, 2006. Cynthia Littleton assumed many of Burns' editorial responsibilities. Littleton left for an editorial position with Variety in March, 2007.
Since then, in addition to hiring Eric Mika, Rose Eintstein and Elizabeth Guider, The Reporter hired the following staff in 2007:
- Todd Cunningham, former assistant managing editor of the LA Business Journal, as National Editor for The Hollywood Reporter: Premier Edition
- Steven Zeitchik as Senior Writer, based in New York, where he provide news analysis and features for the Premiere Edition
- Melissa Grego, former managing editor of TV Week, as Editor of HollywoodReporter.com
- Jonathan Landreth as the new Asian bureau chief, in addition to 13 new writers across Asia
The Hollywood Reporter can pay very well or very poorly, depending on a talent or need for a given battle in the paper wars. This may or may not be a norm at trade journals in general, yet it is curious for well-heeled Tinseltown, where image over substance is the rule and inside information is worth millions. 'High school with money' is a commonly voiced truism. Staff turnover during the Dowling years could be considered abnormally high by most corporate standards in publishing or other industries-- beyond what may be measured as normal attrition. It has been said that even today, both The Reporter and to some extent, Variety, may still be 'in transition' from the boutique days as small, independent, privately owned trade papers steeped in the back street shenanigans that made Hollywood work in an era long gone, although both trades were absorbed into large publishing firms many years ago run from the other coast.
[edit] Competition with Variety
In March 2007 The Hollywood Reporter surpassed Variety to achieve the largest total distribution of any entertainment daily [7]
Variety makes good use of its well-branded heritage as part of the Hollywood scene and culture, not just an observer reporting on it. The Reporter, on the other hand, is often considered by industry insiders as outside that circle looking in and continues to struggle with branding an image for itself, in spite of being established in Hollywood three years before Variety. For instance, Variety's 'brand' continues to perpetuate awareness of their place in Hollywood culture in such old films as Singin' in the Rain, Yankee Doodle Dandy and timeless TV shows like I Love Lucy, Make Room For Daddy and others. The Reporter has tried to do the same in recent years, with recent placements in tv shows like "Entourage," which also prominently features Variety
Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter both are located on Wilshire Boulevard along the well-trafficked 'Miracle Mile.' Staffers often migrate between the papers. There is a history of bad blood between the rivals bordering on the obsessive, sometimes petty and occasionally myopic. Variety was long established as an entertainment trade paper in Vaudeville circles, Tin Pan Alley and in the theatre district of New York City, but it was The Hollywood Reporter that began covering the developing film business in Hollywood in 1930. Variety didn't start its Hollywood edition until 1933.
The Hollywood Reporter maintains a business association with the home entertainment trade publication Home Media Magazine, which is owned by Questex Media Group. The alliance includes an exchange of stories when the need arises, and gives the Reporter access into the home entertainment trade, which Variety enjoys with its sister publication, the Reed-owned Video Business.
Today, news and analysis from The Reporter is also distributed through an exclusive partnership with Reuters entertainment wire services, which reaches 11 million subscribers each day.
The Reporter also reaches about 10 million readers each day through the Nielsen Entertainment News Wire, including the Chicago-Sun Times, Newsday, San Jose Mercury News, Arizona Republic, Philadelphia Daily News and the Toronto Star
[edit] Public relations issues
Officially at least, the Reporter has taken the 'high road' in the paper wars. But it has had its own share of contoversies over ethics as recently as 2001, when Anita Busch, the Reporter's top editor, veteran industry reporter Dave Robb and another editor resigned in protest when their journalistic ethics and integrity were stiff-armed then stonewalled by established and questionable corporate policies swirling around the 'George Christy Affair.' Current publisher John Kilcullen hardly seems a paragon of editorial ethics. A lawsuit filed by two Billboard staffers said he compromised editorial integrity to curry favor with advertisers, and the New York Daily News reported that he killed an ad sponsored by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) at the request of Jennifer Lopez's manager.
In 1998 there was also controversy when mainstream news organizations worldwide attempted to locate White House intern Monica Lewinsky, who had fled Washington as the Clinton scandal broke that spring. Ms. Lewinsky's mother had implied in some jacket notes on a book she wrote that she had been -- or was then recently -- a journalist at the Reporter. However, she had done part-time editing or reporting work a decade earlier (the specifics remain cloudy due to poor record keeping from the era) and in fact she was not a recent full-time staff employee. Resourceful, professional and intrepid journalists, who uncovered this errant fact, besieged the Reporter by phone, fax and in person searching for Monica Lewinsky -- then rumored to be staying with her mother -- by following the lead from her mother's booknotes as the scandal unfolded. But neither person was found at or through the Reporter.
In the late 1940s and mid-1950s, many of Wilkerson's red-baiting headlines in the Reporter during the HUAC hearings may have helped fan the flames of Hollywood's 'Red Scare' when the industry blacklisting emerged. It was a dark but colorful era. Indeed, Wilkerson was reporting on communists in Hollywood as early as 1935. It was also a small news item placed in the Reporter about a studio press screening of a new RKO film called Citizen Kane that snowballed into the legendary industry showdown between the then rising talent, Orson Welles, and William Randolph Hearst, the powerful yellow journalist and publisher.
The trades' print circulation figures are about the same as Variety's -- low in number (generally fluctuating between 25,000 - 35,000) but reach a lucrative demographic group. However, both trades have an advertising base of chiefly film and television studios peppered with a few upscale goods and services. Diversification by the Reporter, for example, into other consumer and business products, routine for most newspapers, many business and general consumer publications, remains a challenge for sales professionals plagued by the pressure to produce short term results without time or incentive to cultivate effective long-term relationships based on disciplined marketing strategies.
[edit] External links
- The Hollywood Reporterde:The Hollywood Reporter
fr:The Hollywood Reporter
Categories: Articles lacking sources from July 2006 | All articles lacking sources | NPOV disputes from April 2007 | Wikipedia articles needing style editing from April 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | VNU Business Media publications | Entertainment magazines | Trade magazines | American magazines | Television magazines
