Why Matthew Belloni’s entertainment industry newsletter thrives

Nicholas Quah of Vulture profiles Matthew Belloni, who writes an entertainment industry newsletter for Puck.

Quah writes, “The newsletter in question, Puck’s What I’m Hearing, with 15,000 paid subscribers (and 35,000 more unpaid ones who can only read snippets), has steadily become the go-to chronicle of Hollywood, a must-read among the entertainment power elite, those who aspire to join its ranks, and many whose livelihood depend on that elite. ‘They are like religion to me,’ says Mark Shapiro, Endeavor’s president, of Belloni’s missives. Published twice a week, What I’m Hearing is a rap sheet chronicling the industry horse race: who’s up, who’s down, what’s happening, what’s being talked about. ‘You never quite know what Matt’s about to say,’ says Brooks Barnes, who covers Hollywood for the New York Times. ‘I open each newsletter and immediately wonder, ‘Is he going to ruin my day?’’ Belloni also hosts a podcast for Spotify and The Ringer, The Town, an inside-baseball program that’s similarly patronized in the biz. Netflix chief Ted Sarandos and the super-agent Rich Paul have both appeared as guests.

“Every show-business era has its inside voice, who in some capacity helps shape the world it covers: Parsons and Hopper, who invented the spectacle of celebrity gossip in the early 20th century; Nikki Finke, the tempestuous Deadline founder who waged a holy war on the town’s egos. Unlike other high-profile Hollywood columns of the past, What I’m Hearing is centered on the structures of the business.”

Read more here.