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As you know, I responded early yesterday to some inaccurate showbiz website’s rumor-mongering. I revealed that, in early December, the new owners of The Hollywood Reporter approached me about becoming editor-in-chief. And that, in January, they made me a very lucrative financial offer. But last night, Richard Beckman, formerly Condé Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group CEO who’s now CEO of THR‘s parent company e5 Global Media, told the trade ”there is no truth to the report” that I’d been offered THR’s editor-in-chief.
Huh? I’ve gone over my notes, and let me reaffirm that the offer was real and detailed and made to me by one of Beckman’s bosses during a phone conversation on the night of January 13th. It consisted of: $450,000 annual salary for becoming editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter. Plus a $1 million Malibu home which, I was told, “you can keep whether you stay 5 minutes or 5 years” in the job. (Why this? Because I had said that some day I want to buy a Malibu condo with an ocean view.) Plus a sum “roughly estimated” at $650,000 a year for my share of several cable TV deals which e5 anticipated making for THR. And so on. Other people know about this offer, too.
Let me reiterate that I did not negotiate. Instead, I set in motion a dialogue about mutually beneficial business between my parent company MMC and the new THR owners. That discussion continues.
Now let me add this: at the time, I thought this a lucrative offer but also a ludicrous one, considering how many THR journalists are going to lose their jobs when e5 Global Media transitions the trade from a weekday paper to a monthly glossy magazine, and website operation filled with syndicated content, and cable TV programmer. THR needs a miracle worker. But to justify this money, that person must walk on water.
- Deadline Advisory: You’re Stuck With Me
- The Hollywood Reporter Post-Sale: Searching For A New Publisher
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Shoulda taken it for that 5 minutes as it doesn’t hurt the resume and then you’d have had the $ 1 million dollar house… which you could have sold on the spot and pocketed the quan, were it not the house of your dreams/desire etc.
Take the condo and run.
More like take the condo and flip it. Who in their right mind would want to live anywhere in The ‘Bu when the entire region will burn down the next time a car backfires?
Thank You…
Too honor and clear soul ! Yes, we live in this world… but there’s more…. believe !!!
Huh. If I’m reading this right, THR is deliberately publishing things they know not to be true.
No really, buy Variety and turn it into an agency and you run it. PLEASE. Represent us all, like you rep your self. Save us! LOL. People are so old school when it comes to the money part, money can’t make shit happen, only ideas can. Wake up already folks. No wonder Sharon Waxman can’t even cover this story right, she keeps thinking how she would do it and that’s why no one is bothering her in the first place and she is running around with her head off spreading rumors about the election of the high school president and she didn’t even vote and she flunked out of school so now she bitches on the web like all the other myspace cyberbullies. You don’t have to leave your house everyday to be who you are. You are who you are the moment you wake up and speak your mind and fuck what anyone else thinks. Rock on Nikki
My mind just exploded, but in a good way I can assure.
Just curious if comments are really as censored as others claim? I guess I will know if this gets posted or not.
It’s one thing to assert you got an offer that others deny. It’s another to asset you turned down THAT offer.
But anytime a blogger gets too meta or busy writing about themselves, it gets ugly. Keep up the good reporting, let the rest sort out the rest.
There’s a difference between “censored” and “moderated.”
“Censored” is an onerous word that implies government restrictions on free speech.
“Moderated” is how people keep their blogs from filling up with hate, spam, and dumb.
Dumb is not a noun, Dan
One post on this subject was enough. Not sure why two were required.
I’ve had plenty of my comments/criticisms removed. In many instances, I wrote them knowing they’d get aced, but at least she read them.
Interesting though, my aaced comments in the past were very much in the vein of what you wrote Chris. I just think she gets sick of people how and what to report. And fuck it, it’s her site, she can run pictures of puppies if she wants to and we’d all stomach it.
Doesn’t stop me from trying to keep on point….
Kudos to you Nikki! Sounds like a dreadfully boring job:).
Who cares Nikke. How about “reporting” on the business?
What Nikki just adroitly reported was the dishonesty this business foments; not to mention dispelling an attempt to smear her journalistic integrity by saying her reporting of the offer wasn’t true.
Kudos, Nikki.
You continue to amaze me, which I appreciate endlessly.
This is her site, Dickhole. Anything she writes here is her “business”.
$ 1 million dollar Malibu house/condo? Come on, you aint gonna find Malibu property under $10 million.
Typical old school Conde Nast play coming from a Conde Nast hasbeen.
No joke. For 1M you’re looking at a timeshared hammock behind the kitchen at Neptune’s Net.
Ummmm, Nikki your a shrewd business woman… there are no $1milion dollar houses in Malibu?? That should have been your first clue that this was a bogus offer!! If you look at the fine print you’ll see that is says Mar Vista!
At what point does trying to discredit Nikki by knowingly publishing false reports about her become slanderous?
This is not a rhetorical question. I’m actually curious.
Would not a “$1 million Malibu home” be the equivalent of a “starter house” somewhere else?
I think a $1 million Malibu house qualifies for section 8 housing for the area.
Call me old fashioned, but I like the olden days when agents and managers were behind the scenes and not in the stories written about Hollywood. THOSE times have changed, I know… But can we keep the reporters/writers OUT of the press. Why do I need to read about the lucrative deal that was made to you by THR and read about how parent of THR is denying such a deal was made. YOU and your friends might care, but I just don’t think it’s appropriate to either whine or gloat like in this child/parent-like fight AND turn this “incident” into a story on your own world wide web site. Just an opinion of a guy who reads you EVERY DAY and really enjoys the reporting.
Best-
Paul
I agree. Shows a profound lack of professionalism to spill the details. Doesn’t surprise me, though. No such thing as ethical behavior today, anywhere.
A reporter merely published facts that disproved a third party’s claim. I believe this is called “journalism.”
I’m really on the fence about this.
I’ve seen the arguments for and against, and I think to defend her reputation against (allegedly) brazenly false accusations, it’s reasonable to publish this kind of detail.
But at the same time, I think the detail is unprofessional and unnecessary on a site like this. Too self-referential to be appropriate for the focus of this site.
appropriate? this is a business website, reporting on the business of media and entertainment.
Nikki was frank and honest — something totally refreshing. How many journalists and writers even know that this is the kind of money they throw around and then fire half the staff?
Kudos to Nikki. Obviously she has her reasons. she’s shrewd, probably using it to get them to up their offer
which would be pretty savvy.
$1 mil in Malibu couldn’t get you a parking spot, condos in MDR start at that.
Do you know what a million dollar home in Malibu looks like? A tenement near Hollywood Park.
why would they deny it? i would have said, “hell yes we tried to get her! you’d have to be insane not to give it a shot!”
fuck those guys.
I wish their were people in the world who told it like it is. Refreshing rarity. Thank you.
A Malibu home with ocean views for $1 million. If they believe that exists, that explains why they think their plan for a monthly magazine will work.
Um, I gotta get me an offer like that. My company is taking pay away from me. I want a Malibu house too.
Everything plus the kitchen sink and you still held out! Good on ya.
Nikki,
I think it is time (past time actually) for you to hand this story off to someone else to report. Once a journalist becomes part of the story, their integrity hangs in the balance. This is a story that needs to be reported and the one reporting it needs to be totally unbiased, something you cannot be because you are the story.
Nikki, I’ve been telling people you’re the best for years. You couldn’t stand doing that job. You’d cut out the Hollywoodies who send in fake press releases about projects they’re supposedly doing, just to see how the town reacts. You’d last with those corporate satraps about five days, if that, because they can’t stand the truth.
Write on, your way.
Aren’t you afraid of the impact this revelation might have on the parent company negotiations you have set it motion? Seems like an embarrassment that can only muck up things.
Glad you are sticking around
Who Cares?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is Deadline now going to be all about you? So disappointed.
Why is the self-meta a turn off for some? Does your own meta suck? I think Nikki Finke is treating her own business news story exactly like any other on the site. Though it would’ve come off better if she had Mike Fleming “interview” her and write the piece to add at least a bit of distance.
Actually, unless you received an offer in writing, you didn’t receive an offer. Believe me. I’ve been through that first hand. So, yeah, unless they sent a written offer to Nikki, they can truthfully say that an offer was never made.