Reporter on its knees
Woe to the shell-shocked Hollywood Reporter with the news of yet another defection -- film business editor Nicole Sperling is leaving to report for Entertainment Weekly out of its L.A. office. Said it before, saying it again -- if the Reporter wants to really save itself and not just apply this or that band-aid procedure, it should hire/buy out David Poland and the Movie City News team (a move that Poland himself suggested a few weeks ago). If this happens MCN will be obliged to sublimate its identity as well as its style of writing and reporting to theTHR tradition and also submit to the political checks and balances hanging around that enterprise like an albatross, and this in turn will allow Hollywood Elsewhere to step in like John Wayne and reap the benefits of the resulting online vacuum.
Former THR columnist (and current Variety staffer) Anne Thompson has written that the Sperling departure "leaves yet one more hole for publisher John Kilcullen to fill, and will not help sagging morale at THR's Wilshire offices. Kilcullen is already looking to find a new editor to replace Cynthia Littleton, who starts at Variety on Monday. And film editor Gregg Kilday, who finally hired tech writer Carolyn Giardina to replace Sheigh Crabtree after she went freelance (she's under contract at the L.A. Times, which ought to put her on staff), will now be looking to fill two film department slots."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 25, 2007 at 7:03 PM
comment #1
bmarklein
says ...
Kilcullen is a huge tool When I met him a few years ago the first thing he mentioned was that he came up with the "For Dummies" books, but that's complete BS.
Posted by bmarklein
at March 25, 2007 7:59 PM
comment #2
jeffmcm
says ...
"MCN will be obliged to sublimate its identity as well as its style of writing and reporting"
which is why this would never happen.
Posted by jeffmcm
at March 26, 2007 12:43 AM
comment #3
bipedalist
says ...
It's not a bad idea in the final analysis - but it would be far better for MCN than it would be for the HR - again, if they bought The Reeler or Cinematical it would be better for them. Clearly there is a management problem over there. They need a new big chief, head honcho, someone like Anne Thompson. MCN basically spools news stories that the HR makes. The only thing they'd get in trade is a David Poland blog, which would be a good thing for them. But...Poland spends all of his time trashing members of the press - why on earth would he think they would then turn around and kiss his ass? Is MCN going to suddenly turn around and become everything that it has fougt against since the beginning? What do you have when you take out the beating heart? Traffic that doesn't even come close to what the HR already gets. You silly men and your overblown egos, really.
I love Poland, I do, and I think his place on the net is secure. But when he made the pitch to HR he showed his true ambition to belong to the very same Big Media empire he works to tear down. What's up with that? If you want to sit at the grown-ups table you have to stop writing bad things about them, right?
Posted by bipedalist
at March 26, 2007 10:03 AM