Nikki Finke: Variety Ordered Hit Pieces On Me After Failed Attempt To Buy Deadline Hollywood Daily

Deadline Hollywood Daily:

Since I did not sign a non-disclosure agreement, I am free to tell Hollywood the following: On February 27th, Neil Stiles, the president and publisher of Variety Group, called me saying Reed Business Information CEO Tad Smith was pushing him to discuss an acquisition of my site....

I can't discuss my end of the conversation (because of non-disclosure agreements I have with other interested parties). But, within a couple of days, the idea of Variety owning DHD was dead. I later learned that the trade publication's editor Peter Bart was not consulted by his overlords about the overture. Instead, he heard about it third-hand. (When axed staffer Anne Thompson wrote something nasty about me on her blog, still carried by Variety, I blurted out, "Anne, the same place that fired you is trying to buy me." Thompson immediately spilled the news to members of the Variety newsroom.)

I heard Bart was pissed. Then last week, Bart ordered up for Sunday's Weekly Variety not 1 (written by Mike Fleming), not 2 (written by Cynthia Littleton), but 3 (written by Peter) separate articles about Hollywood bloggers that focused on me. No one from Variety bothered to call me in advance.

Read the whole story: Deadline Hollywood Daily

Comments

[jalowe1957]

11:14 AM on 03/25/2009

Who is Nikki Fikke and why is Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and the L.A. Times' Patrick Goldstein sare always aying these things about her?

When I go to Deadline Hollywood Daily every day on the internet, in Nikki's words, I come for the cynicism and stay for the subversion.

Now why do you think Nikki is the blooger Hollywood suits love to hate?

[JZ735]

02:08 AM on 03/25/2009

WHO ARE YOU and WHY DOES ANYONE CARE?

[Carol Soskin]

12:38 AM on 03/25/2009

Nikki Finke and her column are the best thing that ever happened to Hollywood and show biz.
She covers all beats in depth and accurately. She has contacts and sources that the trades do not have. The trades only wish they could deliver like Nikki does.
I worked for The Hollywood Reporter for 8 years with Lynne Segall and Bob Dowling and that paper was the best int he business. When they left....it fell down completely. I was an ad account exec. Loved that stint!
Now Nikki has it all.
Her columns are required reading.
Peter Bart and others only wish they had Nikki on their team.
I have never ever seen or read anything so complete, interesting and HONEST as DeadlinehollywoodDaily.! Go Nikki!!!!!!

Carol

[manndan]

11:00 PM on 03/24/2009

First O'Reilly stalks a small woman who blogs and now Variety is pulling this stuff. Boy! Those bloggers must have some power.

[QueenCeleste]

07:35 PM on 03/24/2009

She is must reading for those in the industry. She is a good writer (her obit on Bernie Brillstein was truly memorable) and one smart cookie. For those who don't care--why bother to read and comment?

[shthar]

06:52 PM on 03/24/2009

And they took back her bonus!

[shamwow31]

05:50 PM on 03/24/2009

Nikki Finke should shut her face. I've been tracking her site for a few years now and ALWAYS see stories that are complete nonsense.. Plus, she CHANGES THE TIME STAMPS ON HER POSTS TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE'S SCOOPING OTHER SITES. How is this fair and balanced journalism??? Oh wait, IT'S NOT. Lastly, (and this is my favorite) SHE MONITORS HER COMMENTS AND ONLY POSTS THOSE THAT ARE POSITIVE OR NEUTRAL. If you don't believe me, start contradicting her statements in the comments section and see if she posts your message. It's hilarious.

Sorry for the rant. I just hate everyone that embodies the Perez Hilton's of the world.

[CherrySpring]

09:38 PM on 03/24/2009

I've never heard of the woman before now, so I read the article with neutrality. I read the original article and the comments, and you seem to be way off. There are several contrary, even nasty, comments left for Finke, hours ago (so it's not like she hasn't gotten around to it). I can't dispute anything else you've said (as I don't have the time or desire to sift through gossip), but I can see with my own eyes you haven't exactly been fair, or truthful about the comments section.

[thenicerguy]

08:58 PM on 03/25/2009

And you should shut yours, shamwow31. Nikki Finke has finally brought some aggressive journalism back to Hollywood, a city with two specialty newspapers which spend all their time giving proctologist's exams - in other words, they are so far up the Studios' asses, the only thing they are good for is colon examinations.

Nikki reminds me of the campaigning reporters of the 20s and 30s - the guys who MADE Variety and the Reporter, who tried to explain Hollywood as it is, not as the studio hacks would see fit.

And if she does alter her time stamps, she's playing in the big leagues and we all know the person with the loudest voice wins.

[skeptical700]

05:08 PM on 03/24/2009

For the record: I can tell you that, Ms Fink's blog frequently posted inaccurate and/or patently false information with respect to the recent round of contract negotiations between the IATSE unions and the Producers. I won't venture a guess at to what her motives were, but based upon that knowledge I will say that the misinformation she posted did nothing to ad to the productive discourse surrounding the talks and only served to needlessly inflame the passions of those union members destine to be most heavily impacted by changes to their health plan eligibility.

[Jon Tando]

07:13 PM on 03/24/2009

For the record: not signing your name negates any weight to your stating "for the record".

[thenicerguy]

08:59 PM on 03/25/2009

troll

[Bitsko]

05:06 PM on 03/24/2009

I just finished reading her article for the second time, just to see if I were hallucinating. Just what in the heck is this even supposed to be about? She couldn't write herself out of a paper bag.

[kathy001]

05:01 PM on 03/24/2009

Nikki Finke is one of a dying breed - a true journalist who tells the truth. And there are plenty in Hollywood who don't like that. I'm not surprised that Variety tried to buy DHD. Nikki has called them on their lack of journalistic integrity more than once and, since they can't shut her up any other way, they probably thought that buying her out would take the heat off of them.

Nikki Finke has integrity and she's darn good at what she does.

[ReelBusy]

03:56 PM on 03/24/2009

This pettiness is not surprising.
Variety cannot compete for "news" because they are stuck suckling the tit of the major studios for their ad money. This leads to bitterness and incompetence amongst staffers.
I worked at Reed's parent company many years ago and the people running and working in the "media" division are considered idiots by the rest of this huge worldwide company that services the business to business needs of literally every major industry in the world.
Variety has been on the block at Reed so many times it's not even funny.
They even sold their internal "Variety" ShowBiz Expo trade show to another company years ago.
Why?
Because a below-the-line production oriented show was considered beneath the above-the-line minded editors of the Variety magazine.
So Variety/Reed sacrificed corporate profits and servicing the real production industry in Hollywood for corporate ego.
Par for the course.

[milo h minderbinder]

03:41 PM on 03/24/2009

Yawn. Finke had some interesting stuff during the strike, but for the most part she's a whiner and more interested in self promotion than anything else. I stopped reading after the strike and haven't missed her tripe one bit.

[SailFree]

03:07 PM on 03/24/2009

Surely somebody must be interested in this...otherwise, why post it?

[DeeW]

03:33 PM on 03/24/2009

exactly. And apparently it's a "battle".

[Irish55]

02:48 PM on 03/24/2009

Who or what is Nikki Finke?

[thenicerguy]

09:00 PM on 03/25/2009

If you don't know, you don't need to. Go back to sleep.

[jdw1981]

02:47 PM on 03/24/2009

Sorry, Variety, but you're a print magazine. People don't read print magazines much anymore. That's just the way it is.