Supported by
Janice Min Will Step Down as Hollywood Reporter’s Top Editor
LOS ANGELES — Janice Min, who has orchestrated a stunning turnaround at The Hollywood Reporter over the last seven years, will step down as that publication’s top editor at the end of February, a move that may foreshadow its sale.
Ms. Min, who also oversees the music-focused Billboard magazine, decided in recent weeks not to renew her editing contract for another three-year term. Instead, she will join Eldridge Industries, which controls The Reporter and Billboard, in a new role devising a “media-investment strategy,” she said in an interview on Sunday.
That could mean both buying and selling. Eldridge Industries’ chairman, Todd Boehly, a former Guggenheim Partners executive and a personal investor in the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, has been interested in adding more entertainment properties to his company’s portfolio (the streaming service Hulu was one target in the past). Eldridge hired Moelis & Company and Goldman Sachs last summer to conduct a strategic review of its media holdings, which resulted in the $1 billion sale of another property, Dick Clark Productions, to the Dalian Wanda Group.
Mr. Boehly, who also owns pieces of the film companies A24 and Media Rights Capital, has said that the trade publications are not for sale, but neither was Dick Clark until a major buyer emerged.
Ms. Min, 47, owns a substantial stake in The Reporter.
Taking over her role at The Reporter will be a longtime lieutenant, Matthew Belloni, 41. As editorial director, Mr. Belloni will oversee the publication’s online, video, print and television operations, along with a live-event business.
“The news engine has been a big part of what has made us successful, and that has been very much driven by Matt,” Ms. Min said.
The Reporter employs roughly 100 people.
Mr. Belloni, a former entertainment lawyer who started at The Reporter in 2006, said he did not foresee an editorial shake-up. “I think we’re hitting on all cylinders,” he said in a telephone interview. “There won’t be major changes, but there will be a natural evolution, of course, as we try to stay ahead of the curve.”
Asked why she had decided to step aside, Ms. Min said: “It’s a natural progression. It’s a much easier decision when there are great people to take the reins.”
Mike Bruno, 43, who joined Billboard in 2014, will be promoted to run that trade magazine, which has doubled its online readership over the last three years. Mr. Bruno formerly ran Entertainment Weekly’s digital operation.
Ms. Min, a former editor of Us Weekly magazine, took over The Reporter in 2010 at a time when it was dying a slow death, bleeding from repeated layoffs, vanishing advertisers and diminished relevance in a news cycle dominated by cutthroat entertainment blogs. She eviscerated the five-times-a-week publication, remaking it as a glossy, large-format weekly magazine with an expanded focus on the lifestyles of entertainment industry power players and a seemingly endless photography budget.
Along with the gloss, Ms. Min brought a take-no-prisoners approach to industry news, a big change to a model that had allowed the Hollywood trade publications to merrily exist for nearly a century. Heavily dependent on advertising from studios and networks, publications like The Reporter had long provided fawning coverage to the companies that paid their bills.
Explore Our Business Coverage
Dive deeper into the people, issues and trends shaping the world of business.
A Billionaire Online Warrior: Bill Ackman, an obstinate hedge-funder who loves a public crusade, has used X to push himself into a new realm of celebrity.
Cancel Smartphones: The N.Y.U. professor Jonathan Haidt became a favorite in Silicon Valley for his work on what he called the “coddling” of young people. Now, he has an idea for fixing Gen Z.
Landline Pride: Traditional phones may seem like relics in the iPhone era, but a recent AT&T cellular service outage had some landline lovers extolling their virtues.
C.E.O. Dreams: Fresh business school graduates are raising “search funds” from willing investors to buy companies they can lead.
Nelson Peltz Wants Respect: The longtime corporate agitator feels misunderstood. Maybe his fight with Disney could change that.
The Palm Oil Supply Chain: An E.U. ban on imports linked to deforestation has been hailed as a “gold standard” in climate policy. Southeast Asian countries say it threatens livelihoods.
Advertisement