UPDATE: Variety Layoffs Starting Today
I first received word that chief marketing officer Madelyn Hammond left Variety on Friday. This was her second go-round at the trade after being associate publisher and rejoining in December 2007. “I can’t believe they let her get away. This is the kind of short sighted thinking that can sink businesses,” a major studio exec emailed me. Now the company-wide cost cutting at Reed Business (after it couldn’t sell itself) hits Variety even harder this week, and perhaps as soon as Monday. 
I’m told there’ll be layoffs in both the business and editorial sides. I can’t confirm the number, but one tipster tells me as many as 30, which sounds enormous. So be gentle when you speak to people there tomorrow.
(I am curious what happens to film critic John Anderson after he scandalously punched out publicist Jeff Dowd while covering Dirt! The Movie! for Variety at Sundance. It’s despicable that the trade’s lapdog reporters defended Anderson’s violent behavior just because he was flacked. More so if Variety keeps using him.)
Meanwhile, Peter Bart is telling pals that it’s likely all over for Weekly Variety as a stand-alone publication. I’d heard this a while back, but Variety Group prez and publisher Neil Stiles keeps denying he’s made a decision yet.
There’s an interesting backstory behind the Variety cuts. 
I’ve confirmed that Jeff DeBalko, the President of the Reed Business Information (RBI-US) Business Media Division as well as the company’s Chief Internet Officer, is feuding with Peter Bart. “Jeff fucking hates him,” one insider told me tonight. This isn’t a good enemy for Bart to have because DeBalko is the big kahuna who since 2006 has orchestrated the transition of RBI-US from a print-centric to a digital b-to-b publisher. And he’s been on a slash and burn campaign for two years. I hear DeBalko wants to shut down all the print publications and make the entire operation digital. And even though he has no direct oversight of the trade, DeBalko has been saying internally that he’ll be the first person to “bring Peter Bart and his prima donnas at Variety to heel.” Ouch!
Think that’s juicy? Here’s more: Hammond hated Stiles because he “didn’t like the industry and thought going to the Emmys and Golden Globes was an imposition.” DeBalko is close to B&C editor Ben Grossman (they golf together). Bart and Grossman hate each other because Grossman tried to poach Variety TV reporter Mike Schneider away some months back, but got cock-blocked by Bart despite DeBalko’s support for the move. As one insider tells me, “DeBalko may want to move Bart out, and move Grossman whom he trusts in.” Fascinating stuff.
I’m told other Reed publications that will get sliced and diced in the near future are Publishers Weekly and the consumer electronic trade Twice. 
But my insiders are knocking down the rumors that Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News are merging. I’m told they will continue to exist as separate publications. On Friday, B&C‘s executive editor PJ Bednarski was laid off. (There was just a simple announcement on the trade’s website, which is how Bednarski wanted it.) This comes after Ben Grossman took over as editor last May and added staff. Then the economy went into the tank, so he had to trim back. Meanwhile, B&C is downsizing to standard magazine. The sales people have been tipping advertisers about this for the past month.
- Reed Business Information No Longer For Sale — For Now
- Variety’s Stylephile Victim Of Recession
- Variety Fires Half Its NYC Sales Office; Reed Elsevier Info’s Bidders Down To 3
- Tuesday Massacre At Hollywood Reporter
- More On Variety’s (& RBI’s) Sale…
- SHOCKER: Behind Reed Business Sale; Who Wants To Be Variety’s New Owner?
- B&C Steals Vet Hollywood Reporter Editor
- BLACK MONDAY: Shakeup And Layoffs At Broadcasting & Cable, MultiChannel News
- RIP: John M Higgins, Astute B&C Editor
Here we go again. Peter Bart speaks from decades of experience and smarts, is in trouble? because of a young turk who thinks he knows the industry better?
Bart has profile, wisdom, insight and respect. Lay off, DeBalko
As a former trade editor, I can say that unless Reed has a death wish, there is no way they would replace Peter Bart with a bob like Grossman. You can hate him, but Bart gets the industry and is more of top editor than Grossman can ever be, the guy is a lightweight…THere are a dozen people who could replace Bart and transition him out, Grossman wouldn’t even be in the top 50. I also heard cuts were coming this week and that Weekly Variety was all but dead.
My money is still on Bart!
Again with the same Death Notice?…Even as somewhat of an outsider, the spin in this reporting is as patently overblown as it is ridiculously biased.
For Variety to layoff 30 people is something like 15 % of it’s workforce. The publication is actually profitable, one of the few at RBI that actually is bringing in money, and the crown jewel of their print division. Also, they have no debt to carry like those other guys down the street.
As for Bart, all RBI has to do is look at THR and see what happened after Bob Dowling left. None of those other schmos can get anywhere in this town. Apparently, it’s only their own colossal egos keep them from seeing it.
DeBalko sounds like he’s following Eric Mika’s genius plan here, and we know how THAT is working out. With THR on it’s death bed, and a ton of real talent, Variety’s prospects only look to improve.
Methinks this is but a vineyard of sour grapes that you are making this not-so-fine whine from. You have reported the death of Variety too many times in this column. Why should anyone buy the Ass-covering and BS now?
Why don’t you make these ‘sources’ (un-named, as always in this column) look in the mirror? I’m sure you’ll find the reverse is true.
Please dump PETER BART, he’s a smug asshole whose time has past. I literally read Hollywood Reporter in print and online, three times as often as Variety because I can’t stand his lame, tired columns and petty jabs he takes at people from his so called ivory perch. Has this guy even been on a movie set in twenty years?
Nikki, are you serious? Grossman? He’s not even respected in the industry he covers…There is no way anyone would be that stupid. I can’t even believe you mentioned he and Bart in the same sentence. Are you related to Grossman?
As former employees of the trades, we are all hoping that PETER BART will be dumped BIG TIME…the man is one of the smuggest, mean-spirited, racist, sexist, homophobic weasels this town has ever seen. The fact that they kept him all these years is a testament to the power of the money that the studios poured in to promote their lame products during Oscar season. If there’s any justice, Bart will be sent packing. Good riddance.
Tough times for b2b migrating to online. And RBI is no exception. As a former VP of the RBI Televison, editorial,I left on my own steam.
I left because RBI would never devote the resources to online development. Today I heard from three senior reporters at Multichannel News, a part of that group, who got the ax.There were many more throughout RBI.
I barely remember Jeff, who was then only heading up eLogic, RBI’s inhouse futile efforts to take the publications online. And now he’s heading up the entertainment division, as he continues to head up online for the entire company. How dumb is that?
As I am told from people who still work there, the servers crash every few few hours.
RBI’s president Tad Smith made a bad decision here to name Jeff to this post, when he already had so much on his plate.
So don’t beat up on Jeff, look at Smith and ask him the piercing questions that deserve an honest answer.
.
Variety made a lot of bad moves during the bubble, including launching lifestyle spinoffs that went nowhere and moving to the 5900 Wilshire high rise, during the peak of the real estate bubble, with a signage deal for millions.
And it seems the editorial staff rarely met a minority it liked.