Josef Adalian - FishbowlLA

Nikki Finke Drops the Hammer on Her Variety Compadres

Richard Horgan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:10:30 +0000

The honeymoon is over. After various bouts of Twitter love between Variety and Deadline employees in the wake of a PMC deal that brought the two publications closer together, Nikki Finke has let it be known there is trouble ahead for the paywall-ditching trade.

Assuming her information is accurate, the surprise is not that Jay Penske is planning editorial firings in March. Given Variety‘s staff size, senior salary tiers and the general post-acquisition M.O., this was pretty much a given. What’s more unusual is that PMC employee Finke is blowing the whistle on her parent company’s plans, with an end-parenthesis note that reads: ‘No matter what my corporate boss wants, Deadline reports the news.’ From Finke’s brief, pointed item:

“There is complete editorial disorganization from the top down,” a source complained. “No one knows if Variety is supposed to be a breaking news organization, an analytical publication, or some as yet undetermined hybrid. Tim Gray keeps pontificating to editorial that things are going to change and Variety will go in a new direction. But nobody knows what that means. They’re totally demoralized.”

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A Picture Worth a Thousand Bylines

Richard Horgan — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:30:10 +0000

Since launch in 2009, TheWrap has proven to be a fertile training ground for entertainment journalists. Among the earliest examples of reporters who worked under Sharon Waxman before moving on to other outlets are Amy Kaufman (now with the LA Times), Josef Adalian (Vulture), Hunter Walker (New York Observer), Josh Dickey (Variety), Jeff Sneider (Variety) and Dominic Patten (Deadline).

Still, with the recent departure of Jason Scoggins, Cindy Kaplan and Joshua L. Weinstein for Film Funds LLC, the following photo now stands as a rather graphic representation of the kind of turnover Waxman (and others in the space like The Hollywood Reporter and the LA Times) must sometimes deal with. Of the ten people flanking Waxman in this April 1, 2011 birthday celebration snapshot obtained by FishbowlLA, only one person remains employed with the start-up company today.

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Richard Rushfield Urges Studios to Participate in ‘Nikkileaks’

Richard Horgan — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:30:44 +0000

First came the Gawker article “Is Nikki Finke Losing It?”, in which John Cook revisits a recent email, disappearing post, and staff shuffle at Deadline.com.

Now there is a rebuttal to the Finke telephone and email remarks quoted in the Gawker article, courtesy of veteran LA journo and author Richard Rushfield. He starts off by suggesting that Finke is not telling the truth about the brief Deadline.com tenure of former LA Times editor Maria Russo, and then goes on to issue a bold invitation to the studio flacks cc:ed in her recent berating of an MPAA rep:

Studio people to whom this was addressed: It is because you and your people cooperate with her and her site that this continues and she is able to treat people this way. Why not just grow a hint of a backbone and say, we’re done with you. We’re done, crazy.

And while you’re at it, forward more of these emails to me. The Nikkileaks project is getting underway.

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Jerry Bruckheimer Ruminates About the Red Carpet

Richard Horgan — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:30:41 +0000

In case you hadn’t noticed, Jerry Bruckheimer is the latest Hollywood titan to take to Twitter like there’s no #tomorrow. Which is a good thing, because this guy has a hand in more aspects of Hollywood entertainment than Tom (Cruise), Dick (Wolf) and Harry (Potter).

On the heels of a whole bunch of Dallas Super Bowl tweets, @BruckheimerJB this morning sourced Twitter as a living encyclopedia, wondering when the first-ever red carpet was rolled out. Faster than you can say Carpet Scene Investigation, the tweet-backs have started pouring in:

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Josef Adalian Gets Snatched by Sharon Waxman

Tina Dupuy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:37:59 +0000

Josef Adalian got a gig over at TheWrap.

From their press release:

Adalian is currently Editor of industry publication TVWEEK.com and prior to that had been at Variety, covering television there for a decade. Adalian joins TheWrap’s top-notch editorial and business team, most recently augmented by Variety’s former executive editor Michael Speier, who is News Editor at TheWrap, and former Variety Publisher Charlie Koones, who has joined TheWrap’s Board of Directors.

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TV Week Going Online-Only

Pandora Young — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:51:40 +0000

Trade publication TelevisionWeek will cease printing at the end of the month. The TV programming newspaper will continue to publish online, but much of the staff will be laid off. Variety.com has details:

The weekly TV trades have been hurt in recent years by consolidation in the syndication and TV station businesses, which were the bread and butter of pubs like TV Week. Once upon a time, events like NATPE would generate enough ads for 100-plus page issues; but that advertising has dried up in recent years.

More recently, TV Week ceased publishing a print pub on some weeks, but continued to produce editions of the paper during those weeks online.

TV Week publisher Chuck Ross will continue to oversee TV Week’s online presence, while executive editor Tom Gilbert and deputy editor/columnist Josef Adalian, who just launched a new TV-oriented blog, will also remain; pub is expected to supplement their work with freelancers. Editor Greg Baumann is believed to be departing.

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