• Where the Trade Papers Went Wrong

    They still operate as though the business is still essentially L.A.’s West Side — not the breadth and depth of the world community

  • A Simple Proposal for the Survival of Newspapers

    As a publisher of a five-day a week newspaper, I operated on the theory that news was like the ante in a poker game. You have to have it to play, no one applauds you for having it, but you pay a price if you don’t. In poker, winning is based on what you do…

  • Attention D.C.: Hollywood Is a Job-Creation Factory!

    I am always amused by how little the brain trust in Washington DC actually knows about Hollywood and how it works. This ignorance is manifest in their quick rejection of a $250 million tax relief in the yet to be agreed upon stimulus plan.  However great their overwhelming lack of knowledge, it never holds them…

  • The trades shall rise again!

    What is wrong with the trades?    As a former publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, I am often asked this question.    Massive layoffs, smaller issues, editorial cutbacks, fewer ads and doubts of print product viability all suggest that the trades are in trouble.  So are they, and if so why?     The answer…