The Bible Of The Entertainment Industry Up For Sale

Variety, the oldest entertainment trade magazine that was long considered the bible of the entertainment industry, is on the selling block, according to its parent company Reed Business Information. Reed Elsevier, a Dutch publishing giant, has been in the process of selling off many of its other assets, but this is the first time it has indicated it would abandon the trade, its last remaining U.S. magazine. The oldest of the Hollywood trades, Variety has been struggling with declining advertising and circulation for at least five years. Once the dominant source of information for Hollywood, it has been challenged by digital upstarts and has also faced greater competition from long-time rival The Hollywood Reporter, which relaunched its website and ended its daily print editions for a glossy weekly instead. “Variety is an iconic title serving the film and entertainment industry for more than 100 years,” Mark Kelsey, CEO of RBI said in a statement. “With RBI’s increasing focus on data services, and the sale of our other U.S. print magazines, it now makes sense for us to sell the business.”

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