Daily Variety R.I.P.

 (Photo credit: Steve Woolf)

Unable to compete with the free-access Web sites of competitors The Hollywood Reporter and Dateline Hollywood, the last print edition of The Daily Variety--once deemed "Hollywood's Bible"--rolled out this week, ending a near 80-year run, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The "Dream Industry" hasn't seen the last of Variety, as a free-access, recently revamped Web site is available, and a spanking new version of the Weekly Variety, a 108-year-old weekly, premieres next week, according to the Times article.

Variety earned $6 million last year, compared to the more than $30 million it brought in in 2006. Auto parts magnate Jay Penske acquired the publication for $25 million from Reed Elsevier last year (see "TUOL" post 10/10/12). To borrow a phrase from the entertainment tabloid, advertising revenues and print circulation have hardly been "boffo" since.