The Waldorf Statement was a two-page press release issued on 25 November 1947, by Eric Johnston , president of the Motion Picture Association of America , following a closed-door meeting by forty-eight motion picture company executives at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . The Statement was a response to the contempt of Congress charges against the so-called " Hollywood Ten ".
79-675: The names of the 48 men who attended the meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel were printed in the Motion Picture Herald and Daily Variety , the film industry's primary trade publications. The principal participants who formulated the Waldorf Statement included: Members of the Association of Motion Picture Producers deplore the action of the 10 Hollywood men who have been cited for contempt by
158-422: A jargon called slanguage or Varietyese (a form of headlinese ) that refers especially to the movie industry, and has largely been adopted and imitated by other writers in the industry. The language initially reflected that spoken by the actors during the early days of the newspaper. Such terms as "boffo", "payola", and "striptease" are attributed to the magazine. In 1934, founder Sime Silverman headed
237-441: A "stage gossip" column covering the private lives of entertainers, a "tent show" section covering traveling shows and a subsection called "Freaks to order". Donaldson also published news articles opposing censorship, supporting productions exhibiting good taste and decrying yellow journalism ." As railroads became more developed, Billboard enabled a mail-forwarding system for traveling entertainers. The location of an entertainer
316-759: A 31-story office building on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile area. The building was dubbed the Variety Building because a red, illuminated " Variety " sign graced the top of it. In 2013, PMC, the parent company of Variety , announced plans to move Variety's offices to their new corporate headquarters at 11175 Santa Monica Blvd. in Westwood. There, Variety shares the 9-story building with parent company PMC, Variety Intelligence Platform, and PMC's other media brands, including Deadline.com , Rolling Stone , Vibe , Billboard , Robb Report and
395-540: A background in the music industry. Gervino was appointed editor-in-chief in April 2014. An NPR item covered a leaked version of Billboard ' s annual survey, which it said had more gossip and focused on less professional topics than had prior surveys. For example, the magazine polled readers on a lawsuit that singer Kesha filed against her producer, alleging sexual abuse. Gervino was fired in May 2016. A note from Min to
474-621: A dedicated section called Amusement Machines in March 1932. Billboard began covering the motion-picture industry in 1907 but, facing strong competition from Variety , centered its focus on music. It created a radio-broadcasting station in the 1920s. The jukebox industry continued to grow through the Great Depression and was advertised heavily in Billboard , which led to even more editorial focus on music. The proliferation of
553-504: A dispute with William Donaldson, the owner of Billboard . Silverman folded it two years later after spending $ 100,000, merging some of its features into Variety . The same year, he launched the Times Square Daily , which he referred to as "the world's worst daily" and soon scrapped. During that period, Variety staffers worked on all three papers. After the launch of The Hollywood Reporter in 1930, Silverman launched
632-407: A film producer, believed to be George Kleine , that they were wasting space criticizing moving pictures and others had suggested that favorable reviews brought too strong a demand for certain pictures to the exclusion of others. Despite the gap, Variety is still the longest unbroken source of film criticism in existence. In 1930 Variety also started publishing a summary of miniature reviews for
711-449: A free screen wherever threatened. The absence of a national policy, established by Congress, with respect to the employment of Communists in private industry makes our task difficult. Ours is a nation of laws. We request Congress to enact legislation to assist American industry to rid itself of subversive, disloyal elements. Nothing subversive or un-American has appeared on the screen, nor can any number of Hollywood investigations obscure
790-540: A high-tech firm for tracking music airtime. Private investors from Boston Ventures and BPI executives repurchased a two-thirds interest in Billboard Publications for $ 100 million, and more acquisitions followed. In 1993, it created a division known as Billboard Music Group for music-related publications. In 1994, Billboard Publications was sold to Dutch media conglomerate Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU) for $ 220 million. VNU acquired
869-570: A list in Time magazine of the "ten modern Americans who have done most to keep American jargon alive". According to The Boston Globe , the Oxford English Dictionary cites Variety as the earliest source for about two dozen terms, including "show biz" (1945). In 2005, Welcome Books published The Hollywood Dictionary by Timothy M. Gray and J. C. Suares, which defines nearly 200 of these terms. One of its popular headlines
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#1732765705898948-509: A loan of $ 1,500 from his father-in-law, he launched Variety as publisher and editor. In addition to The Morning Telegraph , other major competitors at the time of the company's launch were The New York Clipper and the New York Dramatic Mirror . The original logo, which is very similar to the current design, was sketched by Edgar M. Miller, a scenic painter, who refused payment. The front cover contained pictures of
1027-484: A policy involves danger and risks. There is the danger of hurting innocent people. There is the risk of creating an atmosphere of fear. Creative work at its best cannot be carried on in an atmosphere of fear. We will guard against this danger, this risk, this fear. To this end we will invite the Hollywood talent guilds to work with us to eliminate any subversives: to protect the innocent; and to safeguard free speech and
1106-509: A set of self-study cassette tapes and four television franchises. It also acquired Photo Weekly that year. Over time, subjects that Billboard covered outside of the music world formed the basis of separate publications: Funspot magazine was created in 1957 to cover amusement parks and Amusement Business was created in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment. In January 1961, Billboard was renamed Billboard Music Week to emphasize its newly exclusive interest in music. Two years later, it
1185-481: A trade publication for the Broadway theatre industry called Backstage . In 1987, Billboard was sold again to Affiliated Publications for $ 100 million. Billboard Publications Inc. became a subsidiary of Affiliated Publications called BPI Communications. As BPI Communications, it acquired The Hollywood Reporter , Adweek , Marketing Week and Mediaweek , and also purchased Broadcast Data Systems ,
1264-574: A weekly paper with a greater emphasis on breaking news. He improved editorial quality and opened new offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, and Paris, and also refocused the magazine on outdoor entertainment such as fairs, carnivals, circuses, vaudeville , and burlesque shows. A section devoted to circuses was introduced in 1900, followed by more prominent coverage of outdoor events in 1901. Billboard also covered topics including regulation, professionalism, economics and new shows. It had
1343-555: Is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation . The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the music industry . Its music charts include the Hot 100 , the 200 , and the Global 200 , tracking the most popular albums and songs in various music genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm and operates several television shows. Billboard
1422-506: Is considered one of the most reputable sources of music industry news. The website includes the Billboard Charts, news separated by music genre, videos and a separate website. It also compiles lists, hosts a fashion website called Pret-a-Reporter and publishes eight different newsletters. The print magazine's regular sections include: Billboard is known for publishing several annual listicles on its website, in recognition of
1501-565: Is not a Communist . On the broader issue of alleged subversive and disloyal elements in Hollywood, our members are likewise prepared to take positive action. We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods. In pursuing this policy, we are not going to be swayed by hysteria or intimidation from any source. We are frank to recognize that such
1580-530: The Billboard 200 , which tracks the top-selling albums, has become more popular as an indicator of commercial success. Billboard has also published books in collaboration with Watson-Guptill and a radio and television series called American Top 40, based on Billboard charts. A daily Billboard Bulletin was introduced in February 1997 and Billboard hosts about 20 industry events each year. Billboard
1659-759: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake , through Arab Spring in 2012, and argues that the entertainment industry needs to stay aware of changes in politics and tastes since those changes will affect their audiences. In a foreword to the book, Martin Scorsese calls Variety "the single most formidable trade publication ever" and says that the book's content "makes you feel not only like a witness to history, but part of it too." In 2013, Variety staffers tallied more than 200 uses of weekly or Daily Variety in TV shows and films, ranging from I Love Lucy to Entourage . In 2016, Variety endorsed Hillary Clinton for President of
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#17327657058981738-438: The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike has been considered Variety 's largest competitor in online showbiz news. In October 2012, Jay Penske , chairman and CEO of PMC, announced that the website's paywall would come down, the print publication would stay, and he would invest more into Variety ' s digital platform in a townhall . In March 2013, owner Penske appointed three co-editors to oversee different parts of
1817-711: The Clio Awards in advertising and the National Research Group in 1997, as well as Editor & Publisher in 1999. In July 2000, it paid $ 650 million to the publisher Miller Freeman . BPI was combined with other entities in VNU in 2000 to form Bill Communications Inc. By the time CEO Gerald Hobbs retired in 2003, VNU had grown substantially larger, but had a great deal of debt from the acquisitions. An attempted $ 7 billion acquisition of IMS Health in 2005 prompted protests from shareholders that halted
1896-580: The Daily in Hollywood. Bart had worked previously at Paramount Pictures and The New York Times . Syd remained as publisher until 1990 when he was succeeded on Weekly Variety by Gerard A. Byrne and on Daily Variety by Sime Silverman's great-grandson, Michael Silverman. Syd became chairman of both publications. In April 2009, Bart moved to the position of "vice president and editorial director", characterized online as "Boffo No More: Bart Up and Out at Variety ". From mid-2009 to 2013, Timothy M. Gray oversaw
1975-467: The House of Representatives . We do not desire to prejudge their legal rights, but their actions have been a disservice to their employers and have impaired their usefulness to the industry. We will forthwith discharge or suspend without compensation those in our employ, and we will not re-employ any of the 10 until such time as he is acquitted or has purged himself of contempt and declares under oath that he
2054-621: The Variety Movie Guide containing a collection of 5,000 abridged reviews edited by Derek Elley . The last edition was published in 2001 with 8,500 reviews. Many of the abridged reviews for films prior to 1998 are published on Variety.com unless they have later posted the original review. The complete text of approximately 100,000 entertainment-related obituaries (1905–1986) was reprinted as Variety Obituaries , an 11-volume set, including alphabetical index. Four additional bi-annual reprints were published (for 1987–1994) before
2133-523: The Weekly on U.S. and international coverage. Silverman passed on the editorship of the Weekly Variety to Abel Green as his replacement in 1933. He remained as publisher until his death later that year, soon after launching Daily Variety . Silverman's son Sidne succeeded him as publisher of both publications but upon contracting tuberculosis in 1936 he could no longer take a day-to-day role at
2212-482: The jukebox , phonograph and radio became commonplace. Many topics that it covered became the subjects of new magazines, including Amusement Business in 1961 to cover outdoor entertainment, so that Billboard could focus on music. After Donaldson died in 1925, Billboard was inherited by his and Hennegan's children, who retained ownership until selling it to private investors in 1985. The magazine has since been owned by various parties. The first issue of Billboard
2291-532: The "bible" of the recording industry. Billboard struggled after its founder William Donaldson died in 1925, and within three years, was once again heading towards bankruptcy . Donaldson's son-in-law Roger Littleford took command in 1928 and "nursed the publication back to health." His sons Bill and Roger became co-publishers in 1946 and inherited the magazine in the late 1970s after Littleford's death. They sold it to private investors in 1985 for an estimated $ 40 million. The investors cut costs and acquired
2370-436: The 1960s, when the service was discontinued, Billboard was still processing 1,500 letters per week. In 1920, Donaldson controversially hired black journalist James Albert Jackson to write a weekly column devoted to black performers. According to The Business of Culture: Strategic Perspectives on Entertainment and Media , the column identified discrimination against black performers and helped validate their careers. Jackson
2449-412: The 1970s started to contain republication of the film reviews published during the year. Older back issues of Variety are available on microfilm . In 2010, Variety.com allowed access to digitized versions of all issues of Variety and Daily Variety with a subscription. Certain articles and reviews prior to 1998 have been republished on Variety.com . The Media History Digital Library has scans of
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2528-463: The Bill Poster. A department for agricultural fairs was established in 1896. The Billboard Advertising publication was renamed The Billboard in 1897. After a brief departure over editorial differences, Donaldson purchased Hennegan's interest in the business in 1900 for $ 500 (equal to $ 15,100 today) to save it from bankruptcy. On May 5, Donaldson changed the publication from a monthly to
2607-682: The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a unit of the holding company Eldridge Industries . Timothy White was appointed editor-in-chief in 1991, a position that he held until his unexpected death in 2002. White wrote a weekly column promoting music with "artistic merit" while criticizing music with violent or misogynistic themes, and also reworked the publication's music charts. Rather than relying on data from music retailers, new charts used data from store checkout scanners obtained by Nielsen SoundScan . White also wrote in-depth profiles on musicians, but
2686-582: The Hollywood-based Daily Variety in 1933 with Arthur Ungar as the editor. It replaced the Variety Bulletin issued in Hollywood on Fridays as a four-page wraparound to the Weekly . Daily Variety was initially published every day other than Sunday but mostly on Monday to Friday. The Daily and the Weekly were initially run as virtually independent newspapers, with the Daily concentrating mostly on Hollywood news and
2765-760: The United States , marking the first time the publication endorsed a candidate for elected office in its 111-year history. Variety 's first offices were in the Knickerbocker Theatre located at 1396 Broadway on 38th and Broadway in New York. Later it moved to 1536 Broadway at the 45th and Broadway corner until Loew's acquired the site to build the Loew's State Theatre . In 1909, Variety set up its first overseas office in London. In 1920, Sime Silverman purchased an old brownstone building around
2844-508: The West Coast offices of WWD and Footwear News . On January 19, 1907, Variety published what is considered the first film review in history. Two reviews written by Sime Silverman were published: Pathe 's comedy short An Exciting Honeymoon and Edison Studios ' western short The Life of a Cowboy directed by Edwin S. Porter . Variety discontinued reviews of films between March 1911 until January 1913 as they were convinced by
2923-449: The archive of Variety from 1905 to 1963 available online. The first issue of Variety sold 320 copies in 1905. Paid circulation for the weekly Variety magazine in 2023 was 85,300. Each copy of each Variety issue is read by an average of three people, with an estimated total readership of 255,900. Variety.com has 32 million unique monthly visitors. For much of its existence, Variety 's writers and columnists have used
3002-413: The articles are written by staff writers, while some are written by industry experts. It covers news, gossip, opinion, and music reviews, but its "most enduring and influential creation" is the Billboard charts . The charts track music sales, radio airtime and other data about the most popular songs and albums. The Billboard Hot 100 chart of the top-selling songs was introduced in 1958. Since then,
3081-473: The beginning of January, normally with a review of the year and other charts and data, including, from 1938 onwards, lists of the top performing films of the year and, from 1949, the annually updated all-time rental chart. The editions also contained many advertisements from show business personalities and companies. The 100th anniversary edition was published in October 2005 listing Variety 's icons of
3160-422: The century. Along with the large anniversary editions, Variety also published special editions containing lots of additional information, charts and data (and advertising) for three film festivals: Cannes Film Festival , MIFED Film Market, and American Film Market Daily Variety also published an anniversary issue each October. This regularly contained a day-by-day review of the year in show business and in
3239-509: The company as publisher of both the Weekly Variety in New York and the Daily Variety in Hollywood. Thomas M. Pryor, former Hollywood bureau chief of The New York Times , became editor of Daily Variety in 1959. Under Pryor, Daily Variety expanded from 8 pages to 32 pages and also saw circulation increase from 8,000 to 22,000. Green remained editor of Variety until he died in 1973, with Syd taking over. In 1987, Variety
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3318-494: The corner at 154 West 46th Street in New York, which became the Variety headquarters until 1987, when the publication was purchased. Under the new management of Cahners Publishing, the New York headquarters of the Weekly Variety was relocated to the corner of 32nd Street and Park Avenue South. Five years later, it was downgraded to a section of one floor in a building housing other Cahner's publications on West 18th Street, until
3397-476: The deal; it eventually agreed to an $ 11 billion takeover bid from investors in 2006. VNU changed its name to Nielsen in 2007, the namesake of a company that it had acquired for $ 2.5 billion in 1999. New CEO Robert Krakoff divested some of the previously owned publications, restructured the organization and planned some acquisitions before dying suddenly in 2007. He was subsequently replaced by Greg Farrar. Nielsen owned Billboard until 2009, when it
3476-508: The direction of self-proclaimed "Real Estalker" Mark David, which later expanded to its own stand-alone site in 2019. October 2014 Eller and Wallenstein were upped to Co-Editors in Chief, with Littleton continuing to oversee the trade's television coverage. In June 2014, Penske Media Corporation entered into an agreement with Reuters to syndicate news from Variety and Variety Latino-Powered by Univision to distribute leading entertainment news to
3555-534: The editorial staff indicated that senior vice president of digital content Mike Bruno would head the editorial department. On June 15, 2016, BillboardPH , the first Billboard chart company in Southeast Asia, mainly in the Philippines, was announced. On September 12, 2016, Billboard expanded into China by launching Billboard China in partnership with Vision Music Ltd. On September 23, 2020, it
3634-519: The films reviewed that week and in 1951 the editors decided to position the capsules on top of the reviews, a tradition retained today. Writing reviews was a side job for Variety staff, most of whom were hired to be reporters and not film or theatre critics. Many of the publication's reviewers identified their work with four-letter pen names ("sigs") rather than with their full names. The practice stopped in August 1991. Those abbreviated names include
3713-516: The first female and youngest-ever executive editor at Billboard and led its first major redesign since the 1960s, designed by Daniel Stark and Stark Design. During Conniff's tenure, Billboard 's newsstand sales jumped 10%, ad pages climbed 22% and conference registrations rose 76%. In 2005, Billboard expanded its editorial outside the music industry into other areas of digital and mobile entertainment. In 2006, after leading Billboard's radio publication, former ABC News and CNN journalist Scott McKenzie
3792-508: The following: Variety is one of the three English-language periodicals with 10,000 or more film reviews reprinted in book form. These are contained in the 24-volume Variety Film Reviews (1907–1996). Film reviews continue to be published in Variety . The other two periodicals are The New York Times (as The New York Times Film Reviews (1913–2000) in 22 volumes) and Harrison's Reports (as Harrison's Reports and Film Reviews (1919–1962) in 15 volumes). In 1992, Variety published
3871-399: The front. The old front-page box advertisement was replaced by a strip advertisement, along with the first photos published in Variety since Sime gave up using them in the old format in 1920: they depicted Sime, Abel, and Syd. For 20 years from 1989, Variety ' s editor-in-chief was Peter Bart , originally only of the weekly New York edition, with Michael Silverman (Syd's son) running
3950-658: The international news agency's global readership. This dissemination comes in the form of columns, news stories, images, video, and data-focused products. In July 2015, Variety was awarded a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award by the Television Academy in the Best Entertainment Program category for Variety Studio: Actors on Actors , a series of one-hour specials that take viewers inside Hollywood films and television programs through conversations with acclaimed actors. A second Los Angeles Area Emmy Award
4029-407: The key cities in the U.S. in the future and initially also reported results for ten other cities including Chicago and Los Angeles. They continued to report these grosses for films until 1989 when they put the data into a summarized weekly chart and only published the data by theatre for New York and Los Angeles as well as other international cities such as London and Paris. As media expanded over
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#17327657058984108-623: The majority of operations were moved to Los Angeles . When Daily Variety started in 1933, its offices were in various buildings near Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. In 1972, Syd Silverman purchased a building at 1400 North Cahuenga Blvd. which housed the Daily's offices until 1988, after which its new corporate owners and new publisher, Arthur Anderman, moved them to a building on the Miracle Mile on Wilshire Boulevard . In late 2008, Variety moved its Los Angeles offices to 5900 Wilshire ,
4187-568: The most influential executives, artists and companies in the music industry, such as the following: Since 1990 Billboard established the Billboard Music Awards , an awards ceremony honors top album, artist and single in a number of different music genres which achieved the highest results during the year form sales, streaming, radio airplay, touring, and social engagement. The data are taken from Billboard and its data partners, including MRC Data and Next Big Sound . Through
4266-520: The original editorial staff: Alfred Greason, Epes W. Sargeant (Chicot or Chic), Joshua Lowe, and Silverman. The first issue contained a review by Silverman's son Sidne , also known as Skigie (based on the childish lisping of his name) who was claimed to be the youngest critic in the world at seven years old. In 1922, Silverman acquired The New York Clipper which had been reporting on the stage and other entertainment since 1853, in an attempt to attract advertising revenue away from Billboard , following
4345-422: The paper. Green, the editor, and Harold Erichs, the treasurer and chief financial officer, ran the paper during his illness. Following Sidne's death in 1950, his only son Syd Silverman , was the sole heir to what was then Variety Inc. Young Syd's legal guardian Erichs, who had started at Variety as an office boy, assumed the presidency. Ungar remained editor of Daily Variety until his death in 1950. He
4424-460: The patriotic services of the 30,000 loyal Americans employed in Hollywood who have given our government invaluable aid to war and peace. Variety (magazine) Variety is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation . It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville . In 1933, Daily Variety
4503-868: The phonograph and radio also contributed to its growing music emphasis. Billboard published the first music hit parade on January 4, 1936 and introduced a Record Buying Guide in January 1939. In 1940, it introduced Chart Line, which tracked the best-selling records, and was followed by a chart for jukebox records in 1944 called Music Box Machine. By the 1940s, Billboard was more of a music-industry specialist publication. The number of charts that it published grew after World War II , as new music interests and genres became popular. It had eight charts by 1987, covering different genres and formats, and 28 charts by 1994. By 1943, Billboard had about 100 employees. The magazine's offices moved to Brighton, Ohio in 1946, then to New York City in 1948. A five-column tabloid format
4582-462: The publication as Editor-in-Chief, after over 30 years of various reporter and editor positions in the newsroom. In October 2012, Reed Business Information , the periodical's owner, (formerly known as Reed-Elsevier, which had been parent to Cahner's Corp. in the United States) sold the publication to Penske Media Corporation (PMC). PMC is the owner of Deadline Hollywood , which since
4661-409: The publication's industry coverage; Claudia Eller as Editor, Film; Cynthia Littleton as Editor, TV; and Andrew Wallenstein as Editor, Digital. The decision was also made to stop printing Daily Variety with the last printed edition published on March 19, 2013, with the headline "Variety Ankles Daily Pub Hubbub". In June 2014, Variety launched a high-end real-estate breaking news site, Dirt , under
4740-485: The reprint series was discontinued. The annual anniversary edition published in January would often contain a necrology of the entertainment people who had died that year. Variety started reporting box office grosses for films by theatre on March 3, 1922, to give exhibitors around the country information on a film's performance on Broadway, which was often where first run showings of a film were held. In addition to New York City, they also endeavored to include all of
4819-559: The studios' attempt to reach other Hollywood professionals who will be voting on the many awards given out in the early part of the year, including the Academy Awards , the Golden Globes and various guild award honors. On December 15, 1906, Variety published its first anniversary number that contained 64 pages, double the size of a regular edition. It published regular bumper anniversary editions each year, most often at
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#17327657058984898-476: The week's hits and flops based on the box office results of 25 key U.S. cities. Later that year, a list of All-Time Top Grossers with a list of films that had achieved or gave promise of earning $ 4,000,000 or more in domestic (United States and Canada) rentals was published. An updated chart was published annually for over 50 years, normally in the anniversary edition each January. Billboard (magazine) Billboard (stylized in lowercase since 2013)
4977-416: The years, charts and data for other media such as TV ratings and music charts were published, especially in the anniversary editions that were regularly published each January. During the 1930s, charts of the top performing films of the year were published and this tradition has been maintained annually since. In 1946, a weekly National Box Office survey was published on page 3 indicating the performance of
5056-509: Was adopted in November 1950 and coated paper was first used in Billboard ' s print issues in January 1963, allowing for photojournalism. Billboard Publications Inc. acquired a monthly trade magazine for candy and cigarette machine vendors called Vend , and in the 1950s it acquired an advertising trade publication called Tide . By 1969, Billboard Publications Inc. owned 11 trade and consumer publications, Watson-Guptill Publications,
5135-574: Was announced that Penske Media Corporation would assume operations of the MRC Media & Info publications under a joint venture with MRC known as PMRC. The joint venture includes the management of Billboard . On January 13, 2024, Billboard shared the intent to further expand in Asia by announcing the launch of Billboard Korea . Billboard publishes a news website and weekly trade magazine that covers music, video and home entertainment. Most of
5214-418: Was awarded in 2016. In June 2019, Variety shut down its Gaming section. A significant portion of the publication's advertising revenue comes during the film-award season leading up to the Academy Awards . During this "Awards Season", large numbers of colorful, full-page " For Your Consideration " advertisements inflate the size of Variety to double or triple its usual page count. These advertisements are
5293-788: Was during the Wall Street Crash of 1929 : " Wall St. Lays An Egg ". The most famous was " Sticks Nix Hick Pix " (the movie-prop version renders it as "Stix nix hix pix!" in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Michael Curtiz 's musical – biographical film about George M. Cohan starring James Cagney ). In 2012, Rizzoli Books published Variety: An Illustrated History of the World from the Most Important Magazine in Hollywood by Gray. The book covers Variety ' s coverage of hundreds of world events, from
5372-496: Was followed by Joe Schoenfeld. In 1953, Army Archerd took over the "Just for Variety" column on page two of Daily Variety and swiftly became popular in Hollywood. Archerd broke countless exclusive stories, reporting from film sets, announcing pending deals, and giving news of star-related hospitalizations, marriages, and births. The column appeared daily for 52 years until September 1, 2005. Erichs continued to oversee Variety until 1956. After that date, Syd Silverman managed
5451-409: Was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $ 500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. Billboard began focusing more on the music industry as
5530-779: Was launched, based in Los Angeles, to cover the motion-picture industry . Variety 's website features entertainment news, reviews, box office results, plus a credits database, production charts and film calendar. Variety has been published since December 16, 1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering theater and vaudeville , with its headquarters in New York City . Silverman had been fired by The Morning Telegraph in 1905 for panning an act which had taken out an advert for $ 50. He subsequently decided to start his own publication that, he said, would "not be influenced by advertising." With
5609-624: Was named editorial director across all Billboard properties. Conniff launched the Billboard Women in Music event in 2007. Bill Werde was named editorial director in 2008, and was followed by Janice Min in January 2014, also responsible for editorial content at The Hollywood Reporter . The magazine became more of a general-interest music-news source rather than solely an industry trade, covering more celebrity and fashion news. Min hired Tony Gervino as editor although he did not have
5688-556: Was one of eight publications sold to e5 Global Media Holdings. e5 was formed by investment firms Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners for the purpose of the acquisition. The following year, the new parent company was renamed Prometheus Global Media . Three years later, Guggenheim Partners acquired Pluribus' share of Prometheus and became the sole owner of Billboard . In December 2015, Guggenheim Digital Media spun out several media brands, including Billboard , to its own executive Todd Boehly . The assets operate under
5767-659: Was published in Cincinnati , Ohio by William Donaldson and James Hennegan on November 1, 1894. Initially it covered the advertising and bill-posting industry and was known as Billboard Advertising . At the time, billboards, posters, and paper advertisements placed in public spaces were the primary means of advertising. Donaldson handled editorial and advertising, while Hennegan, who owned Hennegan Printing Co., managed magazine production. The first issues were just eight pages long. The paper had columns such as The Bill Room Gossip and The Indefatigable and Tireless Industry of
5846-419: Was renamed to simply Billboard . According to The New Business Journalism , by 1984, Billboard Publications was a "prosperous" conglomerate of trade magazines, and Billboard had become the "undisputed leader" in music-industry news. In the early 1990s, Billboard introduced Billboard Airplay Monitors , a publication for disc jockeys and music programmers. By the end of the 1990s, Billboard dubbed itself
5925-469: Was replaced by Keith Girard, who was subsequently fired in May 2004. Girard and a female employee filed a $ 29 million lawsuit alleging that Billboard fired them unfairly with an intent to damage their reputations and that they experienced sexual harassment, a hostile work environment and a financially motivated lack of editorial integrity. Email evidence suggested that human resources were given special instructions to watch minority employees. The case
6004-411: Was settled out of court in 2006 for an undisclosed sum. In the 2000s, economic decline in the music industry dramatically reduced readership and advertising from Billboard ' s traditional audience. Circulation declined from 40,000 in circulation in the 1990s to less than 17,000 by 2014. The publication's staff and ownership were also undergoing frequent changes. In 2004, Tamara Conniff became
6083-459: Was sold to Cahners Publishing for $ 64 million. In December 1987, Syd handed over editorship of Variety to Roger Watkins. After 29 years as editor of Daily Variety , Tom Pryor handed over to his son Pete in June 1988. On December 7, 1988, Watkins proposed and oversaw the transition to four-color print . Upon its launch, the new-look Variety measured one inch shorter with a washed-out color on
6162-498: Was the first black critic at a national magazine with a predominantly white audience. According to his grandson, Donaldson also established a policy against identifying performers by their race. Donaldson died in 1925. Billboard ' s editorial content changed focus as technology in recording and playback developed, covering "marvels of modern technology" such as the phonograph and wireless radios. The magazine began covering coin-operated entertainment machines in 1899 and created
6241-482: Was tracked in the paper's Routes Ahead column, and then Billboard would receive mail on the star's behalf and publish a notice in its Letter-Box column that it had mail for him or her. This service was first introduced in 1904 and became one of Billboard ' s largest sources of profit and celebrity connections. By 1914, 42,000 people were using the service. It was also used as the official address of traveling entertainers for draft letters during World War I . In
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