Jeez, we hardly knew him. John Kilcullen, who since October 2006 has served as publisher of beleaguered The Hollywood Reporter, will leave the company at the end of this month. The reason is “to pursue his passion as an entrepreneur,” 
which has now officially replaced “to spend more time with his family” as the latest explanation for forced exits. Also senior vp of the Film & Performing Arts and Music & Literary groups within Nielsen Business Media, Kilkullen in his five years with the company has been president and publisher of Billboard since 2003. Kilkullen also oversaw Back Stage, The Bookseller and Kirkus Reviews. But my favorite Kilcullen accomplishment was his saying for months and months he was looking for a “star” to be the next editor of The Hollywood Reporter. He even told job candidates he wanted someone “along the lines of Ken Auletta”. It seemed a joke when Elizabeth Guider was hired after being passed over and demoted at Variety.
But that was just symptomatic of what is Nielsen’s increasing Variety-zation. You may have forgotten that in January 2007 Nielsen Business Media’ hired one-time Variety publishing bigwig Gerry Byrne as a consultant. 
(And THR hired Variety veterans Eric Mika as senior V-P and publishing director and Rose Einstein in the role of V-P and associate publisher.) Now Nielsen Business Media today announced the creation of an Entertainment Group “that brings together the company’s leading entertainment brands into one unit” with — you guessed it — Byrne as the senior VP head of it. Previously, the company’s entertainment properties existed under two market groups: Film & Performing Arts, and Music & Literary. This news comes just as Reed Elsevier announced that it’s putting Reed Business Information (owner of Variety and Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News up for sale.)
Based in New York, Byrne will report to Nielsen Business Media president Greg Farrar. Brands in the portfolio include Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Back Stage, Kirkus Reviews, The Bookseller, Film Journal International as well as the film industry trade shows ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia Exposition. According to THR’s story today, 
“The creation of the Entertainment Group is another step in Nielsen Business Media’s integration strategy, setting in place a more unified editorial approach across entertainment properties to provide audiences with the most inclusive, in-depth access to news, data, analysis and insights on every aspect of the industry. In addition, the comprehensive strategy offers advertisers in the film, television, music, theater and literary industries enhanced, integrated opportunities to connect with their target customers across all of Nielsen’s platforms.”
Too bad.
We ceased reading evil Variety entirely.
We read HR lightly and mostly get trade news from other sources.
We are just counting the days until that evil, corrupt weasel Variety editor Peter Bart is dragged down to his home in the seventh level of hell.
He’re’s another fine mess he’s made. Kilcullen ran “Books fo Dummies” into the ground (Wiley bought it at a fire sale price after he loaded the company with debt) and then Billboard, thanks to a ruinious and unnecessary lawsuit and general incompetence. Fox dumped Billboard’s awards show on his watch after a 15-year relationship. That says it all. At least Nielsen finally wised up before he did the same to THR. And this guy thinks he’s an entrepreneur?
John Kilcullen was most effective during his short reign. He fired or ran off most of the top editorial and management talent at the Reporter in a period of months. You can read the results of that as THR does its daily pratfall.
Now Kilcullen has gotten the same. His overlord, the PE vishnu Bob Krakoff, died. Karma is a powerful force.
That wasn’t Kilcullen doing the firing and force outs, that was all Erik Mika, Rose Einstein and Elizabeth Guider, and of course whomever was dumb enough to bring those greenbloods into redblood country to begin with. Bob Dowling and Lynne Segal left, and it’s been a slow death march ever since.
OBTW, the fact that THR doesn’t pay its employees anything near what they’re worth or anywhere near the low end of what their job title’s salary range is doesn’t help.