As a micro-media writer, editor and publisher I tend to get excited when I see others in the field doing particularly well.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Nikki Finke, founder of LA Weekly supported, Deadline Hollywood Daily, has sold to Mail.com Media Corp. in a deal estimated to be worth $10 million, including an upfront payment of around $1 million.
The rise of Deadline Hollywood Daily, which features breaking reports about the media world as well as Hollywood, illustrates the growing influence of entertainment-business bloggers–particularly Ms. Finke–as the clout of traditional trade publications like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter has waned. Both trade publications slimmed their ranks recently, laying off top reporters.
Finke is a native New Yorker and Wellesley College graduate. She has been reporting from Los Angeles since 1986. As is the case for all overnight successes, this pay out has been decades in the making.
Finke insists, “I did not sell out.” She says DHD will continue to be an independent voice and that she’ll add another NYC-based journalist soon.