NIKKI FINKE TO JAY PENSKE: LET ME GO

Nikki Finke has confirmed that she is attempting to sever her business relationship with Jay Penske, who purchased her Deadline.com in 2009 and Variety in 2012. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Finke indicated that she and Penske no longer share the same “vision of what Deadline could be” following Penske’s acquisition of Variety. As a result she said, she wants to buy back the website, or — barring that — start a new one. “One of the most noble things Jay Penske could ever do would be to give me back Deadline,” she told the Journal. A spokeswoman for Penske Media Corp., however, seemed to indicate that Penske is not about to let Finke out of her contract, which runs through 2016, telling the newspaper, that the company has “every intent to continue … our contractual relationship with Ms. Finke through the end of her term.” Although Finke has indicated that she may still launch a separate website that would “fill a different need” from Deadline’s, she also remarked, “I have confidence that no matter what happens, Jay and I can reach an amicable solution to all of this.”