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The Hollywood Reporter

American magazine and website

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The Hollywood Reporter has international editions in several countries. The magazine also sponsors and hosts major industry events.

History

Foundation and early years

The Hollywood Reporter was founded in 1930 by William R. "Billy" Wilkerson (1890–1962) as Hollywood's first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3, 1930, and featured Wilkerson's front-page "Tradeviews" column, which became influential. The newspaper appeared Monday-to-Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, then Monday-to-Friday from 1940. Wilkerson used caustic articles and gossip to generate publicity and was noticed by the studio bosses in New York and some studio lots tried to ban the paper.

In 1932, Variety sued The Hollywood Reporter, alleging that THR was plagiarizing information from Variety following its publication in New York on Tuesdays, by way of phoning or wiring the information back to Hollywood, so that THR could publish the information before Variety reached Hollywood three days later on Friday. Then, in 1933, Variety started its own daily Hollywood edition, Daily Variety, to cover the film industry.

Screenwriter and ardent anti-Communist Jack Moffitt, who had written the scripts for dozens of films during Hollywood's Golden Age and was the father of model and actress Peggy Moffitt, wrote many reviews for THR after being hired by Wilkerson in 1955.

Wilkerson became friends with Howard Hughes and the paper wrote many favorable stories about him and his film plans. In return, Hughes, in addition to advertising revenue, also provided financial assistance to the paper when necessary.

Wilkerson ran The Hollywood Reporter until his death in September 1962, although his final column appeared 18 months prior. Wilkerson's wife, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, took over as publisher and editor-in-chief when her husband died.

Hollywood blacklist

From the late 1930s, Wilkerson used The Hollywood Reporter to push the view that the industry was a communist stronghold. In particular, he opposed the screenplay writers' trade union, the Screen Writers Guild, which he called the "Red Beachhead." In 1946 the Guild considered creating an American Authors' Authority to hold copyright for writers, instead of ownership passing to the studios. Wilkerson devoted his "Tradeviews" column to the issue on July 29, 1946, headlined "A Vote for Joe Stalin." He went to confession before publishing it, knowing the damage it would cause, but was apparently encouraged by the priest to go ahead with it.

The column contained the first industry names, including Dalton Trumbo and Howard Koch, on what became the Hollywood blacklist, known as "Billy's list." Eight of the 11 people Wilkerson named were among the "Hollywood Ten" who were blacklisted after hearings in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee. When Wilkerson died in 1962, his THR obituary said that he had "named names, pseudonyms and card numbers and was widely credited with being chiefly responsible for preventing communists from becoming entrenched in Hollywood production."

In 1997 THR reporter David Robb wrote a story about the newspaper's involvement, but the editor, Robert J. Dowling, declined to run it. For the blacklist's 65th anniversary in 2012, the THR published a lengthy investigative piece about Wilkerson's role, by reporters Gary Baum and Daniel Miller. The same edition carried an apology from Wilkerson's son W. R. Wilkerson III. He wrote that his father had been motivated by revenge for his thwarted ambition to own a studio.

1988–2008; BPI Communications

On April 11, 1988, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel sold the paper to BPI Communications, owned by Affiliated Publications, for $26.7 million. Robert J. Dowling became THR president in 1988, and editor-in-chief and publisher in 1991. Dowling hired Alex Ben Block as editor in 1990. Block and Teri Ritzer damped much of the sensationalism and cronyism that was prominent in the paper under the Wilkersons. In 1994, BPI Communications was sold to Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU) for $220 million.

In March 2006 a private equity consortium led by Blackstone and KKR, both with ties to the conservative movement in the United States, acquired THR along with the other assets of VNU. It joined those publications with AdWeek and A.C. Nielsen to form The Nielsen Company.

Matthew King, vice president for content and audience, editorial director Howard Burns, and executive editor Peter Pryor left the paper in a wave of layoffs in December 2006; editor Cynthia Littleton, widely respected throughout the industry, reported directly to Kilcullen. The Reporter absorbed another blow when Littleton left her position for an editorial job at Variety in March 2007. Web editor Glenn Abel also left after 16 years with the paper.

From 1988 to 2014, Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter were both located on Wilshire Boulevard, along Miracle Mile. In March 2007, The Hollywood Reporter surpassed Daily Variety to achieve the largest total distribution of any entertainment daily.

2009–2010: Prometheus Global ownership

In December 2009, Prometheus Global Media, a newly formed company formed by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, and chaired by Jimmy Finkelstein, CEO of News Communications, parent of political journal The Hill, acquired THR from Nielsen Business Media. It pledged to invest in the brand and grow the company. Richard Beckman, formerly of Condé Nast, was appointed as CEO.

In 2010, Beckman recruited Janice Min, the former editor-in-chief of Us Weekly, as editorial director to "eviscerate" the existing daily trade paper and reinvent it as a glossy, large-format weekly magazine. The Hollywood Reporter relaunched with a weekly print edition and a revamped website that enabled it to break news. Eight months after its initial report, The New York Times took note of the many scoops THR had generated, adding that the new glossy format seemed to be succeeding with its "rarefied demographic", stating: "They managed to change the subject by going weekly... The large photos, lush paper stock and great design are a kind of narcotic here."

In 2011, Deadline Hollywood, a property of Penske Media Corporation, sued The Hollywood Reporter for more than $5 million, alleging copyright infringement. In 2013, THR's parent company settled the suit. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The lawsuit [was] widely viewed in Hollywood as a proxy for the bitter war for readers and advertising dollars... The two sides agreed on a statement reading in part: 'Prometheus admits that The Hollywood Reporter copied source code from Penske Media Corporation's Web site www.tvline.com; Prometheus and The Hollywood Reporter have apologized to Penske Media.'"

By February 2013 the Times returned to THR, filing a report on a party for Academy Award nominees the magazine had hosted at the Los Angeles restaurant Spago. Noting the crowd of top celebrities in attendance, the Times alluded to the fact that many Hollywood insiders were now referring to THR as "the new Vanity Fair." Ad sales since Min's hiring were up more than 50%, while traffic to the magazine's website had grown by 800%.

In January 2014, Janice Min was promoted to President/Chief Creative Officer of the Entertainment Group of Guggenheim Media, giving her oversight of THR and its sister brand Billboard. Min is joined by co-president John Amato, who is responsible for business initiatives.

Guggenheim Partners announced on December 17, 2015, that it would sell the Prometheus media properties to its executive Todd Boehly. The company was sold to Eldridge Industries in February 2017. On February 1, 2018, Eldridge Industries announced the merger of its media properties with Media Rights Capital to form Valence Media (later rebranded in 2020 as simply MRC).

In February 2017, Min announced she was stepping down from her role as President/Chief Creative Officer overseeing The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard to take on a new role at its parent company. Simultaneously, it was announced that longtime executive editor Matthew Belloni would take over as editorial director.

2020–present: PMC joint venture (PMRC)

In April 2020, Belloni announced he was stepping down after 14 years at the publication in the wake of recent clashes with the company's leadership over editorial issues. At the end of April 2020, The Hollywood Reporter (THR) named Nekesa Mumbi Moody as the editorial director who was expected to begin on June 15, 2020.

In September 2020, Penske Media assumed the day-to-day operations of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter through a joint venture with MRC known as PMRC. The agreement also included opportunities for MRC to develop content based on PMC's publications.

Established in 2020, PMRC is the parent company of THR, Variety, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Vibe, Music Business Worldwide, the annual Life is Beautiful music festival and an investment in the SXSW festival franchise that is expanding beyond its US roots next year with an edition in Sydney, Australia.

In April 2020, at least 20 staffers were laid off, including executive vice president and group publisher Lynne Segall.

On August 5, 2022, Boehly pulled out of the MRC joint venture, and bought back the assets he had contributed to it, including The Hollywood Reporter.

In June 2023, at least three staffers were laid off. A year later The Hollywood Reporter laid off a small number of editorial workers.

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