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UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
E5 Global Media CEO Richard Beckman just informed the staff about Eric Mika’s exit. It’s hardly unexpected. Ever since Beckman was hired in January, he has been telling people outside the trade — but, deliberately, not the staff — that he plans massive firings at The Hollywood Reporter because the company plans to abandon the traditional trade format and formula. Instead it will become a small online showbiz news aggregator, and a glossy magazine, and a cable TV programmer which all depend on whether The Hollywood Reporter brand itself is marketable. On the other hand, there is a real possibility that the new owners may just flip the property or take on outside partners instead of exploit it themselves. So the future of The Hollywood Reporter as we all knew it remains a big question mark right now.
Meanwhile, I recently confirmed that e5 Global Media tried to hire away Los Angeles Times VP of entertainment advertising Lynne Segall around the same time that the company tried to hire me as THR editor-in-chief. But Segall wasn’t eager to return to her former haunt where she last served as VP and associate publisher before leaving in 2006. I’ve learned that Segall listened to e5′s bait but didn’t bite.
It may be nearly impossible for the new owners of THR to convince Hollywood advertisers, who’ve virtually stopped supporting the trade in its current beleaguered state, to come back. Beckman is convinced he doesn’t need them because of his advertising and promotions expertise from Conde Nast/Fairchild.
Many very smart people think the new owners might just dump THR if they get the right offer. That’s because e5 is much more excited about another brand it bought, Billboard, and I know there’s a ton of interest from people wanting to partner on or pry away that valuable music title. But THR? Not so much. Instead, the few nibbles have to do with using The Hollywood Reporter title to brand awards shows, celebrity stuff, and other attempts to make a buck from fluff. Any showbiz journalism appears to be simply an after-thought.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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He’s been packing up his desk since last Thursday. Nobody expected him to be back after that. Good riddance. All he did was fly around the world with his girlfriend on “business”, all the while, letting this once-fab publication go down the toilet. Lynn is happy where she is now.
I worked with Lynne for many years when she was with the Reporter during the Bob Dowling era. This was the best time for the HR, and since then it has been on a downward spiral changing hands over and over with people who have no clue what is going on..
Lynne, much like Anita Busch, are not only two of the finest HR vets…they are both consummate professionals.
Classy ladies!!!!
This writer worked more closely than I liked with Lynne Segall at THR for five years during the Segall/Dowling/Busch era. My health returned after leaving Segall’s noxious aura. A control freak who feared flying, there’s little doubt she was a strong taskmaster for an ad sales staff responsible for keeping the cash flowing into the paper in an era when print advertising was key. But her creative skills were zilch; her judgment was often questionably quicksodic and her bookkeeping a fiscal nightmare. She all but ignored the budding market for ad sales on the web and did little to cultivate long term clients in that arena and in my experience, displayed very little respect for reporters and support staff who kept her afloat and her engine room running. Stories abound. On a personal note, she remains the most boorish and rudest individual I’ve ever worked with at any organization. Still, my most endearing memory of Segall is when I returned to my desk and caught her literally rummaging through my unopened lunch stealing food from it before I even sat down to eat. Pure crass. No class. She belongs at the LAT.
These comments are right on the money. In fact, most of the senior management and corporate staff at the parent company Billboard Publications (aka BPI) shared the same lack of vision, boorish behaviour and obsession with cash rather than producing a quality product for subscribers. I know as I was an insider in the NY corporate office.
The name “THR” is DEFINITELY marketable.
Just a guess but regardless of it’s financial standing at this time I’d be willing to bet that in a blind Mall test in Podunk the name “The Hollywood Reporter” would beat “Variety” in a public survey.
But I could be wrong…
In Podunk, USA … it’s Variety. Believe me.
In Podunk, USA its TMZ.
“In Podunk, USA it’s TMZ.”
Thanks for the dose of reality!!!
There is only one woman that can turn that paper (THR) around and back to where it was and that is LYNNE SEGALL. I worked with her for 8 years in the Advertising Sales department and I will tell you….she is one of the smartest in Hollywood. I learned from the best!!!!!!
Lynne is a class act and a woman of integrity. It was a pleasure to work with her. She lived and breathed the Reporter, but has since surpassed what it has turned into. So glad you didn’t turn back Lynne.
THR IS a marketable brand. It is well known around the world, thanks in part, to former publisher Bob Dowling keeping and expanding foreign coverage when Variety’s Peter Bart was letting go its overseas reporters. And then there was the Reuters deal that THR made when Variety’s business people were asleep at the wheel. At a time when entertainment is the number one U.S. export and more money is made overseas than domestically, it’s a good entertainment brand to have in the international market.
Variety is the dominant name domestically, THR overseas. Too bad they can’t be combined now.
Anyway, don’t throw in the towel on THR yet. There are many ways to make money on the name. The ad market has changed drastically so any publisher who comes in now has to think differently, but it can be done by keeping brand, altering the product and competing in the consumer arena.
From a marketing standpoint, I think it would be foolish to throw away a brand that’s been in entertainment for 80 years. (And thank you whoever you are, Tom).
Dear Anita,
The difference between Bob Dowling and all the subsequent publishers (mostly from the east coast) is that Bob did his due diligence and learned how to operate in the Hollywood culture. Most of the other publishers and new owners have bought their management style and thinking into the marketplace and failed.
I do agree that THR is still a fabulous brand, but it requires a true understanding of Hollywood, the entertainment global landscape and some serious creative thinking to keep it going.
And, you are welcome,
Tom
I worked under Lynne for four years during Bob Dowling’s time, and stayed there for about two more after she left. She was (and is) brilliant at what she does. I have a lot of respect for her, but not even she and her advertising chops can turn THR around without one massive, monumental effort, and even then, the payoff is questionable.
Lynne is smart to walk away and let history be history. The Hollywood Reporter faces a very different environment now, and incalculable damage has been done, not only to it’s business model, but it’s reputation from all the wannabes that came and went since Bob and Lynne left. Starting with the bizarre effort at branding via Tony Uphoff’s “Fuel for Thought” campaign, to the completely stupid and unnecessary “redesign and modernization” that Erik Mika initiated and Gerry Byrne authorized which caused THR to lose it’s iconic logo, there’s very little left to show from 80+ years in business.
Are you people on crack? Lynne Segall is one of the most thoroughly unpleasant and genuinely horrid people I have ever had the displeasure to work with. And I say this as a buyer, someone who was routinely coerced into buying pages in THR by threats and intimidation and treated badly, almost as if I worked for her, rather than as a client.
And I know, because friends of mine work with her at LAT, that her ways continue on unchanged.
“Class act”? “Consummate professional”? Who do you work for? A gang of narco-terrorists?
I covered marketing at both trades for several years. I heard the same thing from marketing executives and repeatedly. My experience was that she brought in the ads for THR but never really “got” the division between the ad dept. and editorial. Hence, the front page Alice in Wonderland ad at the Los Angeles Times. The business side would be praising her while journalists cringe.
Dear OK, What Now?
It appears from your comment that YOU and some unidentified friends at LAT found Lynne not to YOUR liking.
Lynne drives a tough deal, and that is for whomever she represents as it should be especially in advertising sales. On the other hand, Lynne was always open to listening and often compromised many deals when I worked with her…and, Lynne NEVER dishonored any deal once she agreed to it.
If being a balls to the wall dealmaker, in the world of ad sales, who honors the All deals made is not a consummate pro…I do not know what is?
Maybe, you should take some more Prozac and when you calm down…you might learn the difference and make better deals yourself.
OK, What Now?
Hey OK, What Now, Lynne’s job was to bring in the money at THR. You know, the stuff that makes the world go round? If you don’t understand that, I suggest you stop putting your tiny head up your ass and try taking a refresher course with an 18-year-old general ed. student at your local community college. Lynne was a tough but fair boss who genuinely cared for THR. I’m glad she did your sorry-ass a favor by coercing as many ad buys from you as possible; I also hope she continues this grand tradition by coercing even more of your ads at LAT. Also, I love the fact that you bring up crack and narco-terrorists. Like a child who passes gas and points the finger at others, let me retort: they who smelt it, dealt it. Get thee to a stall and sort some coke, you, you… BUYER!
@Tom, @Defender. I’m not going to waste my time establishing my bona fides to you two. Suffice it to say that I controlled multi-millions of dollars in ad budgets and am in no need of a refresher course at a local community college. Lynne Segall is a bully with no class who never met a standard of courtesy that she wouldn’t limbo under and has no business ethics. Absolutely none.
I’ve sat on both sides of the table and there are ways to do business so that both sides are able to walk away feeling like they’ve been treated fairly and won some points. That doesn’t exist in the world of Lynne Segall. With her, everything is a zero sum game. That kind of behavior only taints her employer. She may bring in bucks, but at the end of the day, it will only bite her on the ass.
Resorting to schoolyard taunting and name-calling is about what I would expect from people who defend the likes of Lynne. Good luck with that, both of you.
Dear OK, What Now.
You are certainly correct about a part of Defender’s comment. He suggested to go back and take a refresher course from an 18 year old.
Obviously, this too, was way above your understanding and learning pay grade.
And for the record, YOU who suggested that a opinion other than yours must be coming from drug addicts.
Your bona fides are quite clear…you are a major league asshole.
And, isn’t interesting that far more comments are positive about Lynne…gee, a lonely asshole at that!
After I read your reply I never laughed so hard since I saw my grandma choke on her dentures. You work in advertising and you’re complaining about bullying and name-calling? I’ll bet my bottle of Lopressor you’e nothing but a POS, low-level edit staff, seeking relief for a perceived slight from the 1990′s. Okay, did you enjoy slighting hard-working people that’s paying for your English degree? What a joke. The next time you throw latin at me, make goddamn sure you italicize the fuck out of it.
Someone should ask Richard Beckman about Carol Matthews. Some will say it’s ancient history. Others, not so much. Especially Carol.
THR is the dominant brand internationally? Are you kidding me? As someone who until 4 months ago was based in London for 15 years, THR is seriously nothing but toilet paper for buyers and sellers in the film business alike outside of LA. The international arena is owned by Variety and a UK (now monthly) mag called Screen International, which is fairly unknown in the US.
International ads are only bought there are they are so cheap if there is money left at the end of a budget that wasnt spent with other publications – i know countless companies that just take meeting with THR because ‘they feel a bit sorry for them’.
Of course, Screen International is significant overseas in the trade market! I am talking about THR vs. Variety and the future of THR as a going concern and whether it can survive as a trade or must make the transition to consumer. I think it can survive in some form in trade and it would be crazy not to try something in the consumer market because the brand is established. The Reuters deal going to THR hurt Variety in the consumer market overseas badly. That is what I have been referring to.
please, again i am forced to repeat: it is unkind to speak ill of the dead.
…was fond of saying that one should only speak good of the dead. ‘He’s dead. Good.’
The best times for The Hollywood Reporter were when Lynne, Dowling and Anita were at the helm. Sadly it won’t ever be that way again; too many bozos were hired at THR that were either unqualified or just didn’t get it. Onward and upward Lynne. Don’t turn back. You were an amazing to work with and I will forever be grateful for your generosity and integrity.
“Any showbiz journalism appears to be simply an after-thought.”
Nikki, such shallow journalistic tactics can actually be seen on display right here. What an awful article. It reeks of vitriolic hyperbole, a self-interested agenda and countless, unnecessary personal jabs and embellishments. Is it not possible for you to adhere to any journalistic integrity when covering such news? If this is your idea of the future of showbiz journalism, I see no reason to give you nor any of your opinions regarding THR an ounce of credibility. Maybe you can use some of that new money to hire somebody that can bring less fluff and a more level-headed perspective to your blog. Good luck. Life is too short to be so angry.
Vitriol, jabs and embellishments are why we love Nikki. Prozac on Aisle 5…
“…never really “got” the division between the ad dept. and editorial.” Seriously? Hilarious! It’s THR for fucks sake, not THE ECONOMIST.
What kind of ‘news’ did THR break? Were they up for any Pulitzers? Good stuff!
For your information, there are real journalists at the trades … BOTH trades — Variety and The Hollywood Reporter — who care about the ethics of the profession and the separation of editorial from advertising. And BOTH Variety and The Hollywood Reporter have broken news for years and years … and then the reporters are picked off by other news organizations.
AMC, you haven’t got a clue.
Bob Dowling was a great publisher whilst at The Reporter because he knew Hollywood and he knew that to make money you also had to spend some. Bob engaged and humored THR’s subjects & allowed the staff to do the same. His staff for the most part had the drive and energy for the work. Lynne was his sales deputy and co-signed that vision.
Tony Uphoff, John Kilcullen & Eric Mika are the last three EIC’s to slowly drive the brand into a coral reef of sunken, expensed-out ships. Those fateful decisions were made back in the Broadway office by Mikey Marchesano, Gerry Byrne, and another fat guy whose name escapes.
The final nail wuz the Variety migration where Elizabeth Guider, Rose Byrne, Mika, Barnes all came to roost and fail once being swept off the hot dog floor by Peter Bart. THR is a name that should mean something! It’s as old as Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin can’t dance but darn it, he gets respect for trying. THR deserves a good jumping jive but has alienated both the town and all of the staff, past and present, who blanched at the tacky, vulgar pamphlet of self-serving career rehab it has become. A vivid, explicit shame in the annals of stubbing a stellar brand into ash.
It’s about time he went, the man single-handedly destroyed The Hollywood Reporter from his refusal to endear himself to the town to the botched and unnessary redesign. It is too bad for the hard working people that are left. It is sad to see something that I put my blood, sweat and tears into be utterly destroyed.
THR, at least in its later years, is a classic case of executives rising to the level of their own incompetence:
Mike Marchesano = No publishing experience; he worked previously for a trade association
John Kilcullen = No publishing experience; He worked in book publishing and ran Books for Dummies into the ground
The Fat Guy (Howard Lander) = Longtime Billboard publisher who was marginalized under Marchesano
Tony Uphoff = CMP hack with no entertainment experience; he jumped ship soon after arriving once he saw the handwriting on the wall
Eric Mika = Variety hack with no vision on how to turn around THR
A sad lot… they got what they deserved.
You forgot to add Gerry Burn to your list of execs that have a long and proud record of running things into the ground.
He want over to THR last year I think. He’s gone now – I guess.
Actually, Gerry Byrne was a total fraud. He somehow has been able to coast on his 30-years-ago accomplishments and think they translate to what’s happening in media today! What a joke! He didn’t help win over any new accounts, but made sure he was at the opening of every envelope, ususally with side-kick Mika by his side. And yes, Byrne was shown the door when the E5 guys took over. Good riddance to all of them!
Not sure if it’s true or not, but rumour has it that if you close the bathroom door, flush the toilet three times and chew a piece of gum all at once that Eric Mika, John Kilcullen, Tony Uphoff and Applebaum will appear in the mirror and sing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’…..
Will the real THR please stand up! The current one is an imposter.
I am sick to my stomach looking at the result of what that list of people did to THR.
The salespeople there loved and respected working for Lynne Segall and we all worked and worked to make the paper a success every single day and loved every second of it.
You need only to look at and read each and every daily issue and special issue under Lynne’s helm to see the outstanding results and $$ brought in. The paper had a personal and creative touch all the way around from Lynne and the staff. Nothing can or will ever compare with the THR when Lynne and Bob ran the ship.
Let me just say, “You had to be there” and I was. What a gift!
Some truly ridiculous comments posted here. I thought Nikki Finke edited these. Who are you people? It’s obvious some of you are or were employees of one or both of the trades. Yikes. At least Anita Busch has the stones to use her real name. So much easier to rant like a crazy person when you walk in the cloak of anonymity. Believe it or not there are some incredibly talented and dedicated professionals employed by THR, Variety and the L.A. Times. I know that because I used to be one of them. I wish I was still today. You can’t blame the new owners of THR for asking someone like Lynne Segall to come back and you certainly can’t blame her for not doing so. Here’s to a brighter future for the trades and all newspapers and print media. I love the smell of my newspaper in the morning.
dude, did you not read the comments? there’s only a few that complain about Lynne, and she was tough and will admit it. The majority of complaints are about the dismantling of a great publication by Uphoff/Kilcullen/Byrne/Mika….that’s whats so sad and shameful. And no one is questioning why E5 would ask Lynne to come back…we’re mostly applauding her for not taking on a very seriously damaged brand. She’s got a bigger pond to play in now at LAT and better off! good luck to whomever takes THR on!
Yes I read the comments. You just don’t know which ones I was referring to. But at least you know who I am.
The fact of the matter is THR died when Steve Brennan passed.
I studied and worked under Lynne for several years at THR in the mid 90′s–a hey dey for THR. There is much one can say about her… the positive and negative qualities, but she knew her business better than anyone and she loved it with gusto. It was her life. Lynne for all her foibles, is still someone I consider a mentor. Like the best Drill Sargeant in the Marine Corps, Lynne pushed her people to their limits and then some–often times you hated her for it, but you also respected her because you knew in your heart she would not ask you to do something she would not do herself. Yes, she could be a bully, but she could also be extremely charming. Yes, she used crude and abusive language but most really good Drill Sergeants do that–it’s part of the package. You could never accuse Lynne of being PC or warm and fuzzy, but the lady was about as street smart and passionate as you can get. THR was her life for more than 20 years and it must have been very painful for her to have to leave. I learned a tremendous amount from Lynne Segall- things I could never have learned anywhere else. For that I am very grateful. What happened at THR is a Case Study for a B School on how to take an extremely powerful and profitable brand and in half a decade, almost completely wreck it. If the Execs at VNU had allowed Lynne and Bob to continue their leadership of the paper, they would have figured out how to succesfully transition the brand to a new era of media. Now the new owners have to figure out how to reinvent it in a very challenging enviornment. But if anyone can, they will. Why? Because they are smart,committed and passionate, just like the woman they attempted to bring back.
I worked 7 years at THR. Bob Dowling was a genius, a mentor. Lynne was a psychic but devoted to the brand, and successful at it. Buyers? Variety? International Market? Let’s face it: THR was number one for indy and tv, Screen Intl in europe and variety on the east coast. Buyers who were claiming variety is the only trade their client read were the same complaining for a bad review and/or no review at all in THR! Bring back Bob!
The paper was used and abused for years for people’s own personal financial gain. Through all the years I had been there. Those in charge never would do what it needed to stand on par around the country with Variety. I saw it first-hand. To make money, you have to spend some money. Never was done. Always was about doing stuff on the cheap. And people both inside the paper and outside the paper know what I am talking about. Yeah, they would do stuff, but only to a point. You see, when you do stuff on the cheap, you can line your own pockets with the corporation’s money because you get rewarded for making budgets, coming under budgets, etc. That’s what I witnessed.
@ Jason Head: Do read the comments again. I’d work there again with ya now that several of the encephalitic anacondas are gone.
Re: Lynne Segall : The Sue Mengers of trade advertising, right down to the floral mu-muus & frosted lipstick. She and Bob were a good team, the Nichols-May of THR’s resurgence from Bob coming on board through T. Wilkerson.
Re: Breaking news…. THR broke news all the time: casting, TV, music, new media and film. Each trade has tombstone Page 1′s that never came to pass yet ours was sourced through the publicists, agencies, studios, managers and networks. The derisive fallacy that THR workers copied press releases is right up there with ‘death panel’ hysteria: not true.
The decisive decline moment: Kilcullen’s regime drove Cynthia Littleton to Variety – talk about a fine editor and a talent liked by all- opening the door for Elzie Guider to do a white-stockinged, frenzied end-zone run down the street to co-create the Grey Gardens fascimile that surviving, talented people still work under.
Final equation might be that hiring colder plates from the competition + allowing them to fail twice – ignoring other talent with passion = no passing litmus of logic.
Long live THR, the current and past passionate workers, and the paying consumers waiting for better days. Enough of the internal vandalism there because it is showing and it doesn’t have to be this way. Good for e5 taking a thoughtful broom to it.
The decisive decline moment was when Anita Busch quit as editor of the paper.
THR was my first job out of college and I stayed for 16 years working under Bob and Lynne for the majority of that time, I’ve always said the first 15 years at THR were the best working experience I could have ever had. Unfortunately, my last year at THR working under Tony Uphoff and all the rest that had forced out the good in favor of the mediocre made me (voluntarily) leave the job I so dearly loved. Still in touch with many of my old colleagues, we nearly weep at what THR has been turned into. It’s really sad to see something you worked at for so long, with people you respected so much, lose its hard-won credibility. As for the Lynne bashers, the lady has balls, don’t be jealous.
You go Robert Ford!!!
I loved working with you and Lynne and Bob and all !
I learned from the very best!
Carol L. Soskin
What took them so long to understand that this megalomaniac was unfit to understand both movies and publishing?? what he did while at THR is pathetic.
A looser should never have been hired in the first place.. The short sighted suits in New York who supported him should be held equally responsible for sinking THR forever.
This arrogant joke abused and bullied people working for him plus hired the most extraordinary group of incompetents.
without any idea of Hollywood, international distribution or cinema means.
The most worrying thing is that people of his kind always find a way and he will probably seat in a new job instead of begging at a corner of a street…..