Andrew Wallenstein - FishbowlLA

An Historic Hollywood Trades Panel

Richard Horgan — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:00:39 +0000

We’ve attended many Digital Hollywood’s and similar conferences over the years. For the life of us, we cannot remember another time when editorial representatives from all four Hollywood trades participated in the same panel discussion.

The May day confluence will occur tomorrow afternoon at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey. Moderating “The New Digital Age of the Hollywood Trade Press” will be Rick Markovitz, president of Weissman/Markovitz Communications. And participating:

- Andrew Wallenstein, editor-in-chief, digital, Variety
- Chis Krewson, editor, THR.com, The Hollywood Reporter
- Dominic Patten, reporter, Deadline Hollywood
- Joseph Kapsch, deputy managing editor, TheWrap

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Two Trade Publication Staffs Walk Into a Westwood Office Building…

Richard Horgan — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:10:48 +0000

Among the various Twitter wise-cracks posted in response to the news that Variety, Deadline (and other PMC Web publications) will soon be sharing the same LA westside digs was this one:

More like reality TV show. Especially since one of the floors being leased at the Westwood high rise will feature “a full video production studio and three green-screen rooms.”

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Variety Makes Steven Gaydos a VP

Richard Horgan — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:00:34 +0000

Last week, Variety announced the appointment of three new editors-in-chief – Andrew Wallenstein, Cynthia Littleton and Claudia Eller. Today, the trade has made another big move on the “advertorial” side, promoting executive editor Steven Gaydos to the additional role of VP.

The expanded, double title would seem to reflect that Gaydos has the full confidence of new owner Jay Penske, running a features department where most of the money will be. From this afternoon’s announcement:

Gaydos will oversee all editorial for features, events, creative partnerships, custom publishing and other special projects…

Gaydos has been responsible for nearly 200 reports and related events each year, directing the multi-platform production of territorial surveys, film, TV, digital and music reports, business-oriented personality and corporate profiles. In addition, he created and directed the “10 to Watch” program and oversees various initiatives such as brand’s Impact Lists, Hollywood’s New Leaders, Dealmakers and the Billion Dollar series.

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Variety Gets Three New Editors-in-Chief

Richard Horgan — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:15:43 +0000

They are Andrew Wallenstein, (digital), Claudia Eller (film) and Cynthia Littleton (TV). Colleague Tim Gray is not going away but rather will remain in a “leadership role.”

What’s most intriguing here is that Jay Penske is continuing a pattern of promoting female staffers (Littleton) to heretofore male-dominated editorial roles. Last fall, he appointed Michelle Sobrino-Stearns associate publisher. From this morning’s announcement:

The installation of Eller and Littleton as two of the three editors-in-chief marks the first time in the brand’s storied history that women have served in the top editorial role.

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YouTube Content Creators Enliven Variety Film Summit Panel

Richard Horgan — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:00:12 +0000

At today’s fourth annual Future of Film Summit at the Sofitel Hotel presented by Variety and Digital Media Wire, the seating arrangement for the “Trendsetters of the New Platforms” panel placed Brian Robbins next to Michael Gallagher. Which was doubly perfect, because these two dominated the discussion with their tales of two very different paths to YouTube content creation success.

Robbins revealed that Runaways, a series on his Awesomeness TV YouTube channel now into its second second season, costs less than ten percent of what he used to spend on a network TV show like One Tree Hill. Robbins, whose other credits include Smallville, started out in the YouTube business by self-funding a ridiculously successful crossover TV movie starring early sensation Fred.

“I am a father of teens and tweens, and I saw what was happening,” Robbins recalled. “I realized that TV is coming to an end, at least for this audience. So instead of fighting it, I decided, ‘Let’s dive in,” and made the movie with Fred.”

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PGA Rolls Out Another PRODUCED BY Conference

Richard Horgan — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:00:47 +0000

The admission prices for this weekend’s fourth PRODUCED BY Conference on the Sony Pictures lot are steep. But given the level of talent participating in the Producers Guild of America sponsored confab, attendees are willing to put forth boffo coin.

Speakers include everyone from Mark Cuban and LA Times entertainment reporter Dawn Chmielewski to Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein and produce Patrick Ward. Alongside a plethora of Saturday-Sunday events are something called Mentoring Tables. For a separate fee of $100 per, participants get to sit down – Hollywood press junket style – and glean some more private, targeted words of advice.

If FishbowlLA was paying for an MT, we would be inclined to opt for either Snag Films CEO Rick Allen tomorrow afternoon or producer-director Gale Anne Hurd after lunch on Sunday. Organizers tell us that all but four of these ten-seat sessions have sold out.

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Variety Editor Recalls His Mike Wallace Moment

Richard Horgan — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:45:58 +0000

There was understandably no shortage yesterday of cable news, Twitter, Facebook and Internet tributes to the late, great Mike Wallace. One of FishbowlLA’s favorite Sunday reminiscences was provided by Variety TV editor Andrew Wallenstein.

Two decades ago, Wallenstein was interviewed by Wallace for a 60 Minutes piece about Holocaust revisionism. As the editor-in-chief of the Queens College’s student newspaper, he had chosen – like several others around the country – to deliberately publish an incendiary ad from the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust. Wallenstein speculates that perhaps he was singled out for media attention because he was Jewish and stationed on a campus whose student body was close to one-third Jewish as well. From his Variety blog post:

Publicizing the ad was at the core of the rationale behind my decision. I wanted to raise awareness about the very existence of Holocaust revisionism, even at the risk of legitimizing what my many detractors felt was best left ignored…

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The Future of Original Web Video Programming

Matthew Fleischer — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:47:37 +0000

Perhaps the single biggest takeaway from the 2012 TV Summit is that Yahoo is trying REALLY hard to drum up Hollywood awareness of its new video content production strategy. The website sponsored the event and the Yahoo logo was front and center everywhere.

“We’ve got eight out of 10 people online touching Yahoo.com.” said Yahoo’s VP of originals & video programming Erin McPherson in a new-media panel discussion. “We call ourselves the ‘fifth network.’ That’s aspriational. But we’re TV on steroids. We’re creating a TV consumer experience but adding social and mobile.”

They’re also creating some nice swag. I was given not one, but two shiny blue Yahoo pens from a booth inside the Summit. Very nice.

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TheWrap’s Daniel Frankel Segues to PaidContent.org

Richard Horgan — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:30:42 +0000

It took some time, but PaidContent.org has finally found someone to step into the slot previously occupied by Andrew Wallenstein. Starting January 9, Daniel Frankel—formerly of TheWrap and Variety (pictured)—will take over as west coast based senior editor. His last day at TheWrap was December 30.

“PaidContent has been trying to establish a west coast operation for a while,” Frankel tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “We had some talks last spring and then continued talking. PaidContent also lost David Kaplan, so I will be doing some coverage of New York advertising and publishing as well.”

Frankel, who will be home-based, is familiar with that territory from his days with Adweek. He comes to PaidContent after a long stint at TheWrap as news editor and senior writer. After being laid off at Variety the same day as Mike Speier, Frankel began freelancing for the latter at TheWrap in May of 2009 and joined the website’s staff in October of that same year.

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The Simpsons Producers Agree to Pay Cut

Marcus Vanderberg — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:37:51 +0000

The future of The Simpsons took a step in the right direction Wednesday when some of the top producers from the Fox cartoon agreed to a pay cut, according to Andrew Wallenstein of Variety:

“Exec producers for The Simpsons include Al Jean, John Frink, James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Matt Selman and Sam Simon. It unknown whether all have committed to the reduction in compensation or whether that request extended below the EP level.

Reps for top Simpsons producers either declined comment or calls were not returned.

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Variety’s Tom Lowry Off to The Daily

Matthew Fleischer — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:59:06 +0000

The pickup of Andrew Wallenstein in March seemed to portend a stem in the bleeding of reporters leaving Variety and its paywall. But HuffPo’s Michael Calderone is reporting yet another staffer has been poached away by a rival publication. This time it’s New York based senior editor Tom Lowry, who’s off to The Daily to become the new business editor.

Here’s the memo from Daily editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo:

Folks,

I’m happy to announce that Tom Lowry is joining The Daily as our Business Editor. Tom comes to us from Variety, where he was a senior editor, and BusinessWeek before that. He is an excellent journalist and a great guy and we’re thrilled to have him aboard. Please give him a warm welcome when he starts July 1.

Jesse

Lowry was with Variety for little more than a year.

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Variety Picks Up Andrew Wallenstein As New TV Editor

Matthew Fleischer — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:43:33 +0000

Andrew Wallenstein has a new home, leaving his position as senior editor of PaidContent to become Variety‘s new TV editor.

“As we continue to beef up our reporting, Andrew is the perfect fit,” Variety group editor Timothy M. Gray said in a piece on Variety.com announcing the hire. “With Andrew on board, we have the bench depth to provide the news, insights and analysis our readers need to navigate a fast-changing business landscape.”

Wallenstein will provide “analytical and in-depth features for all Variety platforms.” He’ll also “help expand coverage of the digital media marketplace, with particular emphasis on its intersection with traditional showbiz players.”

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Get Ready for the ‘TMZ Hollywood Tour’

Richard Horgan — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:00:12 +0000

Presumably, once the new TMZ tour buses start rolling around Hollywood May 1st, a scheduled stop will be the show and website’s headquarters at Crescent Heights and Sunset Blvds. After all, right across the street is Hyde and The Laugh Factory, where Michael Richards and an astute cell phone owner combined to give Harvey Levin ‘s crew an infamous bit of celebrity bad behavior.

Media commentators like Andrew Wallenstein are reacting with awe at the synergistic genius of today’s announced partnership between TMZ and Starline Tours, as they should. The new venture is a license to print more gossip-soaked money. From the release:

Members of the TMZ TV show will appear in video vignettes, offering up an inside look at Hollywood’s most well-kept secrets and biggest stories.

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Minus Frosty, LA Radio Personalities Heidi and Frank Carry On

Richard Horgan — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:30:35 +0000

When FM powerhouse KLSX 97.1 ditched the talk format in early 2009 in favor of an all-music “Amp Radio” slate, it took down a number of beloved local personalities including Tom Leykis and the so-called “Triplets” – Frosty, Heidi and Frank. Then, last fall, when the trio was dropped once again from new home KABC 790 AM, Frosty Stilwell announced he was leaving the hijinks fold.

Remarkably, in the few months since, Heidi and Frank have found a faithful paying audience with their new podcast. Andrew Wallenstein shares their subscriber stats via a nice profile piece today at PaidContent.org:

The Heidi and Frank Show has attracted well over 6,000 subscribers who are paying anywhere from $5 per month to $50 a year for access to a trove of audio and video programming, including two hours every weekday morning. There’s limited access to a layer of free content intended to get unacquainted viewers sampling and, if this freemium model holds up, signing up for added benefits like ad-free podcasts.

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Tonight is Jay Leno’s Last Night as the Tonight Show’s Host

Tina Dupuy — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:32:24 +0000

It’s been 17 years since Jay Leno took over Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. In all those 17 years Leno has personally groomed/mentored/launched exactly zero other comedians. But maybe now that he has an earlier show that will change, right?

Anyway, we like Andrew Wallenstein from The Hollywood Reporter’s commentary on All Things Considered about the move by NBC to have Leno at ten every night:

To understand what NBC is up to in late night, consider the comb-over. Some men paste the remaining hair on their heads over their bald spots. And NBC takes the few big hits it has and just stretches it over fallow sections of its schedule. Hey, it’s easier than what most networks do, which is try to launch brand new hit shows.

Wallenstein notes that with this add – there will be four funny white guys with talk shows every weeknight on NBC.

Hm. There’s an overdone premise.

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