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 […]

WILL FINKE LEAVE DATELINE.COM?

Nikki Finke and Jay Penske have each denied a report by rival industry blogger Sharon Waxman on TheWrap.com that Penske had fired Finke. “The scourge of Hollywood media [i.e. Finke] has clashed repeatedly with her boss, who apparently has had enough,” Waxman wrote on Sunday. Likewise, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that Finke […]

CUTBACKS HIT VARIETY IN WAKE OF SALE

The new owner of Variety has informed its staff that the trade publication is laying off 20-25 people in several of its business units. The figure represents about 12 percent of Variety‘s reported 165-member staff. Word of the layoffs first appeared in a post on Deadline.com, a corporate sibling of Variety, which conspicuously did not […]

VARIETY HAS A NEW PUBLISHER — A WOMAN

Days after it was announced that Variety had been acquired by Penske Media, the new owner has announced a major personnel change. Brian Gott is out as publisher; Michelle Sobrino-Stearns is in — becoming the first woman to hold the top position at the trade publication in its 107-year history. In a statement, Penske said, […]

HOLLYWOOD NEWS SERVICE TO LAUNCH ON ION

There’s a new entrant into the crowded field of Hollywood news reporting on TV. The Wall Street Journal reported today (Wednesday) that Jay Penske’s PMC media company, which owns Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com, is teaming with the ION Television network to produce short-form features on topics ranging from celebrity scandals to box-office reporting that will air […]