Variety editor takes leave after social media outburst

Claudia Eller, editor-in-chief of Variety, will take a two-month administrative leave after making an angry social media outburst, reports Mike Fleming Jr. of Deadline Hollywood.

Fleming reports, “This came after Eller wrote an article lamenting that Variety did not have enough diversity in its staff, and vowed to work to change things. She was challenged on social media and responded to a former employee at a rival trade, Piya Sinha-Roy, who is of South Asian descent. Eller called the woman ‘bitter,’ leading to a continued heated exchange. After a meeting between Eller, PMC and Variety staffers who were offended by the back and forth, it was mutually decided it would be best for Eller to take some time away to consider her actions.

“While Eller is doing that, Cynthia Littleton will step in as interim editor. Littleton had been co-editor-in-chief along with Eller and Andrew Wallenstein, before stepping away from that role several years ago to focus on business reporting and take the title of Business Editor.”

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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.