Is It Curtains for The Hollywood Reporter? Variety Publisher Penske Media Group to Operate Rival THR, Billboard and Vibe in Joint Venture With MRC

-


The era of dueling Hollywood trade pubs is over. 

Variety reports that its parent company Penske Media Corp. has inked a deal with MRC to operate The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Vibe under a joint venture. The newly formed company will be called PMRC. The deal puts longtime rivals Variety and THR under the same roof for the first time ever, and also means that leading music pubs Billboard, Vibe and PMC's Rolling Stone will now be family. 

Dick Clark Productions and other assets will be spun off under a second joint venture, charged with developing new content from brands across the company. (So you know what that means: more awards shows.)

Tongues are wagging as to the ultimate fate of THR. Will Jay Penske continue to run the two trade titles as separate, quasi-independent entities (á la the old "joint operating agreement" of daily newspapers, where business operations are merged while the newsrooms continue to compete with one another) or will he fold Variety's longtime rival? 

"Whether Penske decides to shut THR depends on how it is performing financially," Reed Phillips — the chairman of Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips, which specializes in M&As for media, marketing and tech businesses — told me this morning. "If it is doing OK, it might be a smart strategy to keep it alive because you are often better off competing with yourself by having two strong brands in the same market rather than leaving an opening for another."

Another media insider told me, referencing Penske's track record of taking over and making over titles like Variety, Rolling Stone and WWD: "Penke's business model has been to acquire established brands with loyal audiences that have been mismanaged in the past. They cut costs, but they don't have a history of folding things. They don't fold businesses — they transform businesses by bringing them into the 21st century."

As for myself, someone who has worked on and off for years for some of these pubs and their corporate siblings, reading about all this is kind of like watching a wedding between Hatfields and McCoys. Let's wait and see whether it turns into a bloodbath.

Popular posts from this blog

The Death of 'Taco Bot': A Cautionary Tale for AT&T, YouTube and the Advertising Business

-
Image
The news that megabrands AT&T and Johnson & Johnson are the latest in a crush of global giants pulling out from YouTube over concerns about their ads appearing next to offensive content has, naturally, focused largely on the site's owner, Google. On the defensive, Google has promised an "extensive review." But how do you control a robot? The actions of one advertiser or vendor are the least of this, and its getting resolved seems about as likely as our making Bill Gates un-rich or Kim Kardashian un-famous. The larger issue around this mess is that it's yet one more defeat for the inexorable automation of business. And in particular, it is another black eye for programmatic advertising. The Times puts it pretty succinctly: "The issue highlights the continuing risks companies face with programmatic advertising, which sends advertisers' money through a complex web of agencies and third-party networks that resemble a stock exchange before ads...
Read more

Wake Up! NY Post Tweets 2-Month-Old Story

-
Image
There are two things nobody looks to the New York Post for: news or facts. (Except when they quote me.) That's why it wasn't a surprise to come across this tweet this morning noting that this is National Napping Day: Only problem is, the story they linked to is from  early January . (The tweet has since been deleted.) Insert joke here about the Post and napping. 
Read more

Would Walter Cronkite Have an Instagram Account?

-
Image
If you are a working journalist, as I am, you could be forgiven for wanting to off yourself daily for being reminded by other reporters of what a complete failure you are. Let me say upfront that I have enjoyed the spoils of my career, of which there have been many. I've been honored to rub elbows with famous journalists and other bold-faced names. I've attended the Oscars, talked at the Cannes ad festival, and partied at the Tribeca Film Festival. I've gone on TV to talk about this or that on occasion. I've had celebrity writers pick fights with me, some of them public — among them Salman Rushdie and the late Jimmy Breslin. Those were a lot of fun. But I never saw myself as the story. How naive of me. Professors, albeit brilliant ones, who like to write about current events are now being classified not just as journalists but as superstar journalists. Consider Ben Smith's puff piece on Heather Cox Richardson in the Times this week. Richardson teaches American hi...
Read more