Steve Zeitchik is leaving PW for a post at Variety. Memo below:

-----Original Message-----
From: Nelson, Sara (RBI-US)
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 4:57 PM
To: Zeitchik, Steve (RBI-US)
Subject: Good News/Bad News

It is with tremendously mixed feelings that I am writing to announce that Steve Zeitchik will be leaving PW after nearly seven years as a writer and editor. Apparently, some little magazine called Variety has lured him with the promise of covering media companies, Hollywood and (just a little bit about) the book business.

The good news (for him) is that this is a great offer, richly deserved. The bad news (for us) is: he's really taking it.

While at PW, Steve helped launch, develop and write for first PW Daily, then PW NewsLine (then PW Daily again). For both the magazine and online, he's reported on the personalities, controversies, deals and dramas of the U.S. and international book scene. He has done this with a passion and perseverance unusual enough to be called -- rightly, for once -- awesome.

Steve will be here through the middle of September, and he'll rejoin PW for a reunion tour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where he'll help us cover deals and the fair. And when he starts at Variety, he won't be going very far --he'll be working in the publication's New York office just one floor up.

I have only worked with Steve here for six months, but for six years before that, he made my life a living hell -- and I mean that in a good way. A fearsome competitor, he has also been a delightful colleague. I know that you will all join me in congratulating -- and missing -- him heartily.