In late January 2013 The Hollywood Reporter announced a slate of hires across marketing and editorial — Anna Magzanyan as VP of marketing, plus Matthew Belloni’s elevation to executive editor and other moves on the digital side. The FishbowlLA framing was that Janice Min was building out for “break-even” — the financial target the relaunch had been working toward for two years.
Then
Magzanyan came in as VP of marketing, signaling the title was now serious about commercial operations alongside its editorial relaunch. Belloni — already a key player at THR as a senior editor and the architect of the Hollywood, Esq. franchise — was promoted to executive editor. Mark Miller (from Newsweek/Daily Beast) joined in a senior role. Alison Brower took on an additional title. Owen Phillips continued as website editor.
The original FishbowlLA framing was a positive, even celebratory pickup: “It feels a little bit this week like the inauguration of Janice Min’s second two-year term. Having re-branded and relaunched a struggling Hollywood trade publication as a consumer weekly magazine and website, Min is seemingly gearing up for the next big operational step forward towards (hopefully) break-even.”
The “consumer weekly magazine” framing was specifically Min’s editorial strategy — pulling THR away from being a daily trade for industry insiders and toward being a glossy weekly with broader newsstand appeal. The 2013 hires were structurally aligned with that strategy — marketing and executive editorial reinforcements meant the title was ready for the next monetization phase.
Now
Janice Min’s strategy did substantially deliver on the relaunch promise. THR’s revenue grew through the mid-2010s on a combination of awards-season advertising, event franchises, and the glossy print product. Whether the title hit profitability in the way the 2013 framing implied is a matter for the historical record — but the editorial momentum was clearly real.
Matthew Belloni’s eventual trajectory took him out of THR in 2017, into senior editorial roles, and ultimately to Puck (which he co-founded in 2021). His What I’m Hearing newsletter is one of the most-cited inside-Hollywood properties of the 2020s. The Belloni-Gardner editorial partnership that crystallized at THR in the early 2010s has now operated as the core of a separate, independent media operation.
Janice Min left THR in 2017 and co-founded The Ankler with Richard Rushfield. THR was eventually acquired by PMC in 2020. Anna Magzanyan and Alison Brower both continued in senior media roles after their THR tenures. The “break-even” framing the 2013 hires were pointed at was effectively superseded by the eventual sale to PMC, which reset the financial math for the entire publication.
Original report archived on the Wayback Machine: January 2013 snapshot