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Josh Dickey leaves Variety for TMZ — the March 2013 hire and the post-PMC trade exodus
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2013) · Wayback archive → In late March 2013, Variety film editor Josh Dickey — whose career FishbowlLA had been tracking for years — accepted the managing editor role at TMZ.com. Nikki Finke once again broke the Variety-internal news on Deadline. The exit fit a clear…
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When Deadline and Variety moved into the same Westwood high-rise — a March 2013 cohabitation
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2013) · Wayback archive → In March 2013, PMC announced that Variety, Deadline, and its other web publications would soon be sharing the same Westwood high-rise at 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard. The Twitter wisecracks comparing it to a reality show were predictable. One floor of the…
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The year TMZ took its job interviews to SXSW
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-21 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, 2013 By 2013, TMZ had reshaped celebrity news. Its approach to hiring, it turned out, was just as unorthodox. Then In March 2013, FishbowlLA flagged a job listing that stood out from the usual Mediabistro postings. TMZ was searching for a…
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Finke breaks news of pending Variety layoffs — three months after the PMC deal closed
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2013) · Wayback archive → In late January 2013, Nikki Finke published a Deadline.com item announcing that PMC was planning Variety editorial firings in March. The story was unusual not because the layoffs were happening — that was widely expected — but because the breaking of…
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The Hollywood Reporter’s parent company gets a new name and a new boss
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-20 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, 2013 In January 2013 FishbowlLA reported a corporate rebrand that signaled bigger ambitions for The Hollywood Reporter’s owner — and a sharper rivalry at the top of the trade business. Then Under Guggenheim Partners, The Hollywood Reporter’s parent company — until…
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February 2012: Janice Min on rebuilding The Hollywood Reporter — the AvantGuild interview
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, February 2012 In mid-February 2012, FishbowlLA picked up a Mediabistro AvantGuild “So What Do You Do?” interview with Janice Min — the editor who had rebuilt The Hollywood Reporter. The original framing pulled out a detail about Min and Twitter: an…
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Jay Penske puts Michelle Sobrino-Stearns in charge at Variety — October 2012
By Jordan Vega · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2012) · Wayback archive → In mid-October 2012 — barely a week after PMC’s acquisition of Variety from Reed Elsevier had closed — Jay Penske announced that Michelle Sobrino-Stearns was taking over as Variety’s publisher, replacing Brian Gott. Then Sobrino-Stearns came in with substantial trade-publication background.…
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Penske names Variety’s first female publisher
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-20 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, 2012 Days after Penske Media completed its purchase of Variety, FishbowlLA noted a milestone in the trade’s long history: its first female publisher. Then Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, a 15-year Variety veteran whose titles already included sales director, managing director of features and…