Hollywood Reporter, Variety have had layoffs

The parent company of industry publications Hollywood Reporter and Variety has laid off staff, reports Oliver Darcy of Status.

Darcy reports, “Penske Media Corporation, which owns the lion’s share of Hollywood trade publications, including Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter, has quietly laid off staffers in piecemeal fashion over the last several weeks, raising questions about the health of the powerhouse publisher. One person familiar with the matter told me dozens of people had been impacted by recent belt tightening.

“A spokesperson for PMC sidestepped specific questions about the layoffs and state of the business, but told me in a statement, ‘Penske Media is growing and will grow overall in both headcount and revenue this year. Penske Media has grown its total employees in 2022, 2023 and 2024. As a regular course of business, we are proactive about moving resources from slower growing to higher growing businesses, brands and departments across the company.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.