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.

Pensky Files Down Variety Staff

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A month after purchasing Variety from Reed Elsevier (see "TUOL" post 10/10/12), Penske Media Corp. ("PMC") has slashed 12 percent of the entertainment industry newspaper's 165-person workforce, the Los Angeles Times reports.

No reporters or editors are among the 20 employees being let go, the Times article notes. Media mogul Jay Penske purportedly has retained consultants to advise him about reducing the frequency of publication of the print edition of the Daily Variety. A weekly version of Variety is currently published as well.

According to the Times piece, Penske plans to tear down the online edition's paywall during the first quarter of 2013.

Penske Persistence Pays Off: Mogul Buys Variety

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dutch media conglomerate Reed Elsevier has unloaded the 107-year-old weekly newspaper and "Bible" of the entertainment industry, Vareity, to Penske Media Corp. ("PMC") in an assets purchase deal whose terms were not disclosed, the Web site Deadline.com reports.

PMC CEO and Chair Jay Penske, a 31-year-old Internet media mogul and son of a famous racing family, is adding Variety to a stable that already includes the online MovieLine and HollywoodLife. His quest for Variety (see "TUOL" post 4/29/11) was backed by debt and equity financing from Third Point LLC affiliates, according to the Deadline.com post.

Reed Elsevier oversaw Variety for about a quarter century, following an 80-year stewardship of the trade newspaper by the Silverman family.

Will 'Variety' Be Added to the Penske File?

Image by shindoverse via FlickrDutch media mogul Reed Elsevier may be unloading Variety to 30-year-old Detroit Internet media conglomerate owner Jay Penske, according to TheDaily.com.

Penske, scion of a wealthy car-racing family, already has an online media stable that includes HollywoodLife, Movieline and showbiz Website, Deadline. Penske's online holdings are backed by a $35 million stake from private equity company, Quadrangle Partners, according to TheDaily.com post.  The Amsterdam-based Reed Elsevier held onto Variety, after offering it up for sale in 2008 at a time when it sold 61 trade journals as the magazine industry faltered with the economic slowdown.

Variety has denied TheDaily's claim. The magazine, which has been covering the entertainment industry since 1905, is owned by the Reed Business Information division of Reed Elsevier.

"TUOL" can see the Variety headline now if TheDaily item proves true: "Dragging Mag No Dutch Treat."