Tag Archives: Nikki Finke

Deadline.com: Variety going behind pay wall; The Hollywood Reporter could go online-only

Nikki Finke (who sold her media and entertainment news blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, to Mail Media Corporation – for a figure speculated to be as much as $15m in June) reports how her rival, entertainment title Variety has decided to go behind a pay wall:

“[T]he website will no longer be free. So online and print content will both be subscriber-based. Exactly which combination of content and services will be offered has yet to be determined. But this is being done in recognition of the sad fact that, ever since Variety pulled back that paywall in 2006 (back when all that mattered was traffic numbers at the expense of subscription dollars), the trade has lost a ton of money.”

And, she says, The Hollwood Reporter could kill its print edition:

” Meanwhile, sources tell me that The Hollywood Reporter is about to dump its daily print version. The date considered was October 16th, but now that’s been moved back. So this means THR will pursue a paid web-only strategy for its content. (Though I’ve heard certain special issues will be published from time to time, including awards coverage.) If THR scraps its print edition as planned, then Variety might see its print subscriptions pick up.”

Full post at this link…

Deadline Hollywood Daily’s Nikki Finke: “I did not sell out”

It was reported this week that Nikki Finke has sold her media and entertainment news blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, to Mail Media Corporation – for a figure speculated to be as much as $15m. Here’s a blog post written on Tuesday by the former Newsweek writer:

“Know this: I did not sell out. I really meant it when I said that DeadlineHollywood Daily.com will continue to be an independent editorial voice  – and I would retain complete control over everything reported on the website – so that DHD’s credibility with its readers could remain intact.”

Full post can be found at this link…

The beast is unleashed: looking at Tina Brown’s new site

As reported all over the shop, yesterday saw the launch of the online news aggregator site, The Daily Beast, captained by former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The NewYorker, Tina Brown, and backed by Barry Diller, of IAC/InterActiveCorp.

PaidContent had managed a sneak preview, but the likes of Roy Greenslade, and Journalism.co.uk had to wait till its official grand unveiling yesterday afternoon.

Named after the fictional tabloid in Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 novel, Scoop, Tina Brown describes The Daily Beast, on her site, as: “the omnivorous friend who hears about the best stuff and forwards it to you with a twist.”

Her motley crew boasts the satirist Chris Buckley, former McCain adviser Mark McKinnon, Project Runway’s Laura Bennett and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg.

The site’s bold red and black design has a large list of contributors and features a collection of news, opinion, blogs, links and video.

Over at Cyber Journalist Net they reckon it’s ‘about 30 percent original content’ and Gawker is having fun speculating about Brown’s spending habits.

Opinion in the US seems to be split on the site: Deadline Hollywood’s Nikki Finke thinks it ‘sucks’, but as the New York Observer points out she said that about Huffington as well.

Steve Johnson at the Chicago Tribune reckons there’s irony in the choice of title but doesn’t think that necessarily matters.

With absolutely no advertising on the site, it will be interesting to see whether The Daily Beast can survive in the online jungle. It seems to have had a lion’s share of initial hype at least.