Hollywood's Variety Goes Up for Sale

Hollywood trade paper Variety is on the auction block, the Los Angeles Times reports. Anglo-Dutch owner Reed Elsevier is selling a publishing operation that produces the 103-year-old Variety and hundreds of other titles, including Publisher's Weekly. The sale is part of Reed Elsevier's strategy to ditch advertising-dependent publications to focus on subscription-based offerings and information services less vulnerable to downswings. 

The decision to sell is no reflection on the performance of the showbiz paper that's been breaking Hollywood scoops since the days of vaudeville, said a statement from Reed Elsevier. Variety puts out both daily and a weekly editions, as well as a web site. Advertising in the print editions fell last year, but online advertising jumped 82%. (More publishing stories.)