By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive →
In mid-May 2011, Patrick Goldstein — by then sharing his LA Times trades beat with colleague James Rainey — published a piece in the Miami Herald about Deadline.com. Nikki Finke responded with the line that captured the moment: “I’m still calling it as I see it.”
Then
Goldstein’s Miami Herald piece — running in the McClatchy syndication system — placed Deadline’s then-recent ascent in the broader Hollywood-trade context. Finke’s response was characteristically direct.
Now
Patrick Goldstein retired from the LA Times in December 2012, eighteen months after the Miami Herald piece. James Rainey continued at the LA Times for years, with subsequent moves through the paper’s TV and media beats. Nikki Finke left Deadline in November 2013 and died in October 2023. Jay Penske has continued as PMC CEO through the entire interval; Deadline continues as one of the dominant U.S. entertainment trade publications, now alongside Variety and The Hollywood Reporter inside the same PMC corporate structure.
More from the FishbowlLA archive
- THR launches FASHtrack — the 2011 fashion-vertical experiment and what survived
- Mel Gibson’s April 2011 Deadline exclusive — Allison Hope Weiner’s access, Anita Busch’s praise, David Poland’s revulsion
- Dawn Hudson’s first AMPAS interview — Stephen Galloway’s February 2012 Hollywood Reporter sit-down