By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Hollywood Reporter Gets Its Gossip!
After not landing gossip queen Nikki Finke, The Hollywood Reporter followed in Nikki’s boss’s footsteps – Bonnie Fuller is already the dominant force at Mail.com, according to insiders – and hired Fuller’s wake runner, Janice Min.
We can all gnash our teeth over it, but it makes perfect sense. Huffington Post has been forced to resort to running soft-core porn to keep their numbers up… and are still losing money. Deadline is not a money maker. The Wrap needed more money after a year in business. So how do you revive a dead trade? Make George Christy your editor-in-chief.
I must admit… if I was consulted on the future of THR, this would have been a big part of my suggestion too. Jason Binn it up. Be running photos of Hollywood partying every single day. If you might be in it, you’ll want to look. If you aren’t in it for sure, you’ll probably want to know who was.
Who’s your top columnist, if you can get her? Sharon Swart. Find a way to get Bill Higgins to give you 5 years. Hire Patrick Goldstein away from LAT, since what he is best for now is his relationships, which have led to goopy insights as an analyst, but can offer lunchtime grist for the mill for a tabloid trade that actually cares what sides Brian Grazer had with his meal.
It doesn’t need to become like the real tabloids… pregnancies and break-ups and who wore what best. Play to the constituency and you can make a mint. Without worrying about journalistic issues, THR should be replacing Carlos de Abreau’s buy-a-table-win-an-award scam by the fall. The Key Art Awards can become a celebrity event… it’s already got better sketch comedy than The Oscars.
This move screams to me, “We know what The Trades always were… but now, we have to lower the price to get audience back into lavishing us with unwarranted advertising.”
Be the whore.
Live the whore.
Love the whore.
It’s not journalism. It’s not pretty. But it is the best way to keep a dead idea alive.
And in the meanwhile, they can tip their hat to Nikki and Sharon for taking over the old model, which is just as corrupt, but expends endless energy trying to pretend it’s not. Good luck with that, ladies.
Great idea… Sir MIx-A-Lot as the celebrity spokesman of the paper! Home run!
ADD, 3:25p – Janice Min talks to NYT…
In an interview, Ms. Min said she wanted to revive coverage of a tumultuous industry.
Actually it should go…
Accept the Whore
Embrace the Whore
and Live with the Whore!