Editor’s Note:
The online version of this story has been corrected to reflect that the Hollywood Reporter has not closed its New York Bureau.
The Hollywood Reporter is fresh off a redesign, but its new look couldn’t prevent the publication from announcing the latest in a round of media layoffs.
Citing declining advertising revenue and the need to cut costs, 10 people at the daily trade publication were handed pinkslips last week, five of whom were part of the newsroom staff.
Among those laid off were Washington, D.C. bureau chief Brooks Boliek and longtime reporter Alex Woodson, who was based in New York. In the Los Angeles office, pinkslips also went to Julie Wood, managing editor/international; Karl Gibson, office manager; and Cristy Lytal, assistant editor/special issues.
Names of the five let go from the advertising department were not released.
A spokeswoman for the Reporter’s parent company Nielsen Business Media, said that the layoffs were a part of a companywide move to improve efficiencies.
It’s been a tough time for many publications, and especially chaotic at the Reporter.
Robert Dowling, the former editor and publisher, resigned in December 2005. Dowling and advertising guru Lynne Segal were credited with double-digit growth of the publication’s ad revenue before they left.
Ad revenues then began a decline, leading to the departure of a slew of top-level executives who were eventually replaced by ex-Variety executives and editors. The transition was dubbed the “Varietization” of the Reporter. Nielsen hired Variety publishing executive Gerry Byrne as a consultant. Variety veteran Eric Mika was hired as senior vice president and publishing director and Rose Einstein, also from Variety, as vice president and associate publisher.
The Varietization capper came nearly a year ago when Elizabeth Guider, a Variety veteran, was hired to be the Reporter’s new top editor.
“Nobody likes having to make cuts but this is something that we had to do,” Guider said of last week’s layoffs.
Morning Winner
Fox’s KTTV (Channel 11) is adding half an hour to its morning news show. The move makes KTTV the only local newscast on television in Los Angeles to show news weekdays from 10 to 10:30 a.m.
The Fox affiliate dominated local morning news in Los Angeles during May sweeps.
KTTV airs local news programming in hourly blocks between 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., when its top rated morning talk show “Good Day L.A.,” anchored by Jillian Reynolds, Steve Edwards and Dorothy Lucey is broadcast.
“Good Day” maintains a healthy audience ranging between 171,000 homes during the 7 to 9 a.m. time slot and about 109,000 homes for its 9 to 10 a.m. slot, according to May 2008 sweeps data.
“Good Day L.A.” often ties or beats national morning talk shows such as ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today Show” in the local L.A. market, according to Nielsen Media.
The newly expanded news program, “Fox 11 Morning News at 10,” will be anchored by Tony McEwing and Jean Martirez.
Kevin Hale, the station’s vice president and general manager, said that the expanded half-hour of programming will deliver breaking news and weather, as well as entertainment and lifestyle features. Health and medicine will also be a focus, along with women’s interest pieces and around-town segments that highlight places of interest in Los Angeles.
Distribution Minefield
Two show biz veterans believe that they have the connections and the experience to guide nascent filmmakers through the minefield of distribution.
Arik Treston and Nicole Ballivian established Cinevolve Studios in the Valley about a year ago and are now beginning to get some traction, recently distributing the DVD version of Showtime’s documentary “Home Front” to retailers across the United States.
“We are definitely positioning ourselves for distribution through new media channels but the reality is that home video, or DVD, is still a great money maker,” said Treston, who was a former content buyer at a studio called Cinema Libre.
Treston said that he is tapping top tier national DVD distributors such as Ingram Entertainment, VPD Inc. and Baker & Taylor, to get films and documentaries on the shelves of national retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Meanwhile, he is also reaching out to the last vestiges of the mom and pop video stores and small chains to market his combination of foreign films, documentaries and art house fare.
“Our goal is to make sure that indie filmmakers, who are always getting ripped off by Hollywood accounting, can come to us and we will show them exactly how it all works,” Treston said. “Our process is totally transparent to the filmmaker.”
Staff reporter Brett Sporich can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226
