Variety executive editor Birnbaum leaving for Amazon

Debra Birnbaum CREDIT: MAARTEN DE BOER PHOTOGRAPHY

Variety executive editor Debra Birnbaum will be leaving her post of four and a half years to join Amazon as director of awards.

A story on the Variety website states, “Her last day at Variety will be Nov. 23.

“Birnbaum has led Variety’s TV team and coverage since joining the news organization in 2014, serving both as editor and writer of some of the publication’s strongest cover stories, including her recent profile of Robin Wright and her takeover of ‘House of Cards.’

“Along with her many newsroom and managerial duties, Birnbaum has overseen Variety’s annual TV awards coverage and gold standard Emmy standalones. She has also moderated numerous industry panels with top talent and led the charge on Variety’s award-winning TV Actors on Actors series.

“‘We will sorely miss Debra and all of the enormous contributions she has made to our organization — both from an editorial and business perspective,’ says Claudia Eller and Andrew Wallenstein, Variety’s co-editors-in chief.”

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.