Latest posts
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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…
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Harrison Cheung’s Christian Bale biography — July 2012, the Manhattan Beach Barnes & Noble homecoming
By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, July 2012 In mid-July 2012, FishbowlLA covered Harrison Cheung’s return to his Manhattan Beach stomping grounds for a Barnes & Noble appearance promoting his Christian Bale biography. Cheung had spent 1992 to 2002 working closely with Bale’s pre-Batman career. Then Harrison…
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Miles Corwin’s second Ash Levine novel — May 2012, the crime reporter turned LAPD novelist
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, May 2012 In late May 2012, FishbowlLA tracked an Orange County Register write-up of Miles Corwin’s new novel Midnight Alley — the second in his Ash Levine detective series. Corwin, a former longtime LA Times crime reporter who had become a…
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When Sam Rubin’s Twitter got hacked — July 2012, KTLA, and the Gawker pile-on
By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, July 2012 In early July 2012, KTLA entertainment reporter Sam Rubin’s Twitter account was hacked over a weekend — and the situation produced an unusual secondary story when Gawker’s Louis Peitzman read something darker into Rubin’s hacked feed even after Rubin…
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November 2012: Tribune Company set to receive critical FCC cross-ownership waivers
By Maya Trent · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, November 2012 In mid-November 2012, FishbowlLA picked up an LA Times report by DC reporter Jim Puzzanghera: the FCC was set to grant the Tribune Company a set of critical media-cross-ownership waivers — letting Tribune emerge from bankruptcy with its newspaper-and-television…
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Stephen Randall’s 2012 LA Times op-ed on the Variety-Deadline ‘love match’ — read in hindsight
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2012) · Wayback archive → In mid-October 2012, Playboy deputy editor Stephen Randall wrote a humorous LA Times op-ed about the just-closed PMC-Variety acquisition, framing it as a love match between the two trade properties. The piece was lightly satirical. Six months later, half of the…
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The day PMC bought Variety — and Nikki Finke didn’t get to run it
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Pandora Young (2012) · Wayback archive → In early October 2012, PMC’s acquisition of Variety from Reed Elsevier was announced. Jay Penske told the LA Times immediately that Nikki Finke would not be involved in running Variety, and that the publication would be operated separately from Deadline.com, though…