Peter Bart: "It's Time for a Reinvention"

Updated at 3:30 pm on Monday: 

 

 

Peter Bart, a Hollywood institution for 20 years in his role heading up Daily Variety, has been moved aside to be replaced by his deputy Tim Gray, Reed Business CEO Tad Smith announced on Sunday.
 
The move is the end of an era for the daily and weekly trade publication, which has been struggling to adapt to the rapid-fire pace of news-gathering while seeing advertising decline sharply in the wake of a weak economy and entertainment industry cutbacks.
 
The trade went through severe cutbacks in January and has continued to lose web traffic and ad revenue, mirroring the troubles facing many other traditional newsprint companies across the country. 

 

Gray, who will report to Variety president Neil Stiles, faces a daunting challenge. 

 

In an interview with TheWrap, Gray said he would be focusing on evolution rather than revolution, but that the Variety brand has gotten a little "blurry": 

 

"I think one of the goals is to get a distinctive identity for all of the (properties)," he said. "With the web, if you said to people, ‘What are three things you like better about the web than anything else?’ They’d have to get back to you on that one. The goal is to give it an identity."

 

In an interview with TheWrap, Bart said he didn't feel sad. "I feel stimulated," he said. "I love to get on with the next group of missions. I’ve had few different careers -- had a great time in journalism, spent many good years in the movie business, i've been doing this for 20 years -- it's time for a reinvention."

 

But it's Variety that may well need reinventing.

 

For two years in a row, the movie studios have severely cut back their advertisements during the Oscar season, in 2008 because of a writers guild strike, and this year in the overall context of a weak economy. 

 

Any Hollywood executive picking up the daily trade cannot help but notice Variety's  shrinking size and the lack of advertising since the Academy Awards in March, a worrying shift for the flagship publication of Reed Business Information, even in a fallow time of year.
 

Gray is considered an experienced and well-liked editor who has run both daily and weekly publications but has not been intimately involved in Variety.com.

 

But Gray said he was not sure which direction he'd be taking Variety.com, which has lost audience in the past year.

 

"If I knew the answer to that, I’d be the richest man in world," he said. "I’ll have meetings with (Variety President) Neil (Stiles) and Brian Gott, the publisher. But it’ll be an evolution, rather than a revolution. You won’t log on to Variety.com and say, ‘Whoa, I get it.’ We’ll try stuff." (See The Grill interview with Gray.)

 

To many, Gray's promotion indicates Variety's intention to continue to pursue a print revenue strategy, even as most legacy media are striving to convert themselves into online-first publishers.  

 

"They’re still betting on print," said one Variety insider. "Every decision in cutting 30 people in January was in favor of the print product, to support what they needed to get the daily and weekly out the door."

 

Bart is credited with professionalizing the newsroom at Variety, combining operations for the daily and weekly publications, opening bureaus, starting a successful Gotham edition and expanding international coverage, among other things.

 

He ran into trouble in 2001 when a profile of him in Los Angeles magazine said that he had disparaged minorities, leading to his temporary suspension.