Variety (magazine)

Variety is a weekly American entertainment-trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York in 1905 as a weekly; in 1933 it added Daily Variety, based in Los Angeles, to cover the motion-picture industry; in 1998 it brought out Daily Variety Gotham, based in New York. Variety.com is a paid site of news, reviews, archives, box office results, credits database, production charts and calendar, with content dating back to 1914. The last daily printed edition was put out on March 19, 2013.

History

Variety has been published since December 16, 1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering vaudeville with its headquarters in New York City. In 1933, Sime Silverman launched Daily Variety, based in Hollywood.

Sime Silverman had passed on the editorship of the Weekly Variety to Abel Green as his replacement in 1931; he remained as publisher until his death in 1933 soon after launching the Daily. His son Sidne Silverman (1901â€"1950), known as "Skigie", succeeded him as publisher of both publications. Both Sidne and his wife, stage actress Marie Saxon (1905â€"1942), died of tuberculosis. Their only son Syd Silverman, born 1932, was the sole heir to what was then Variety Inc. Young Syd's legal guardian Harold Erichs oversaw Variety Inc. until 1956. After that date Syd Silverman was publisher of both the Weekly Variety in New York and the Daily Variety in Hollywood, until the sale of both papers in 1987 to the Cahners Corp. In L.A. the Daily was edited by Tom Pryor from 1959 until 1988.

For twenty years its editor-in-chief was Peter Bart, originally only of the weekly New York edition, with Michael Silverman (Syd's son) running the Daily in Hollywood. Bart had worked previously at Paramount Pictures and The New York Times. In April 2009, Bart moved to the position of "vice president and editorial director", characterised online as "Boffo No More: Bart Up and Out at Variety". The current editor is Timothy M. Gray.

Cahner's Publishing purchased Variety from the Silverman family in 1987. 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 is the owner of Nikki Finke's Deadline.com, which since the 2007â€"2008 Writers Guild of America strike has been considered Variety's largest competitor in online showbiz news. On October 10, 2012, Jay Penske said the paywall will come down, the print will stay and that he will invest more into Variety's digital platform in a townhall.

However, the last daily print edition was put out on March 19, 2013; a print weekly and the online publication remain.

Circulation

Paid circulation in 2011 was 61,144, including Daily Variety, weekly Variety, and Variety.com, representing 41,554 individuals, some of whom subscribe to more than one of these.

Editions

• Variety (started in 1905) is a weekly glossy tabloid edition with a broad coverage of movies, television, theater, music and technology, written for entertainment executives. It is published weekly and delivered internationally.
• Daily Variety (started in 1933 and ended in 2013) was the name of the Los Angeles-based Hollywood and Broadway daily edition.
• Daily Variety Gotham, (started in 1998) was the name of the New York City-based edition which gives a priority focus to East Coast show-business news and was produced earlier in the evening than the Los Angeles edition so it could be delivered to New York the following morning.
• Variety.com (launched in 1998) is the internet version of Variety. It was one of the first online newspapers to charge for access when it launched. While the publication did briefly provide free access, it brought back its paywall in December 2009. At the same time, Variety introduced a subscription where subscribers received Variety.com, Digital Variety, Daily Variety and Weekly Variety for one price.
• Variety On-The-Go Variety is also available as an app on the iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows phone. This app is an interactive content-driven platform providing entertainment industry updates on the go.

Culture

For much of its existence, Variety's writers and columnists have used 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. Such terms as "boffo box-office biz", "sitcom", "sex appeal", "payola", and even "striptease" are attributed to the influence of the magazine, although its attempt to popularize "infobahn" as a synonym for "information superhighway" never caught on. Its most famous headline was from October 1929, when the stock market crashed: "Wall St. Lays An Egg". Another favorite, "Sticks nix hick pix", was made popularâ€"although 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; translated, it means that rural audiences were not attending rural-themed films. Television series are referred to as "skeins", and heads of companies or corporate teams are called "toppers". In addition, more-common English words and phrases are shortened; "audience members" becomes simply "auds", "performance" becomes "perf", and "network" becomes "net", for example.

Facts and figures

• On January 19, 1907, Variety published what is considered the first film review in history.
• On December 7, 1988, Bart's predecessor, Roger 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 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. (www.simesite.net/roger.asp, 7th paragraph).

A significant portion of the publication's revenue comes during the movie-award season leading up to the Academy Awards. During this time, 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 the studios' attempt to reach other Hollywood professionals who will be voting in the many awards given out in the early part of the year.

Location

In late 2008, Variety moved its Los Angeles offices to 5900 Wilshire, a 31-story office building on Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of the Miracle Mile area. The building was dubbed the Variety Building because a red, illuminated "Variety" sign graced the top north and south sides of the building.

Reprints of film reviews

This is the short list of English-language periodicals with 10,000 or more film reviews reprinted in book form:

• Variety as Variety Film Reviews (1907â€"1996) in 24 volumes.
• New York Times as New York Times Film Reviews (1913â€"2000) in 22 volumes.
• Harrison's Reports as Harrison's Reports and Film Reviews (1919â€"1962) in 15 volumes.

Film reviews in Variety continued after the dates of the last reprints.

Reprints of obituaries

The complete text of approximately 100,000 entertainment-related obituaries (1905â€"1986) were reprinted as Variety Obituaries, an 11-volume set, including alphabetical index. Four additional bi-annual reprints were published (for 1987â€"1994) before the reprint series was discontinued.

Film trailer charts

In 2009, Variety launched a chart showcasing the top performing film trailers ahead of theatrical release in partnership with media measurement firm Visible Measures.