The New Trend: Online Program Servicing

I remember meeting Besas at the MIFED film market in Milan, Italy, regularly, together with legendary Variety writers Hank Werba, Bob Hawkins, Elizabeth Guider, Fred Hift and Roger Watkins (the late Hift later worked at Video Age). At the MIP-TV market in Cannes, I'd often run into Bruce Alderman and Jack Loftus (who coined the expression "mercy" instead of merc’, or "thank you" in French). And at NATPE, I'd bump into Les Brown and John Dempsey.

Guider and Dempsey are the only two "muggs" left at Variety from the old guard (Variety reporters were called "muggs" before the paper was sold to Cahners for more than $60 million in 1987). What kept us together was a common interest in Italian film-TV affairs. During the late '70s, early '80s, Italy was Variety's key overseas spot, and many of Variety's "muggs" went through Italy: Hawkins, Werba, Hift, Guider (a Southern belle from Louisiana who spoke peerless Italian), Hawkins, Hift, Werba.

Besas recalled at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, Variety's Italian section alone boasted 70 pages (60 were ads) while coverage on France was half that at 34 pages, Spain 17 and Britain 13. Both Besas and Werba (who was considered a communist in Italy) were in charge of editorial and advertising for their respective territories. Besas' annual special sections on the Latin American film-TV biz inspired me to start Video Era, a Spanish-language edition of the English-language Video Age which, alas, being the mid-1980s, was an idea ahead of its time.

Besas joined Variety in 1969 as Madrid bureau chief, and I joined Television/Radio Age in 1977. In his book, Besas devotes a full page to my former publication and its publisher, Sol J. Paul. However, he failed to mention that the coup de gr‰ce to that venerable trade magazine (founded by Paul in 1953) was delivered by Variety when it offered to buy TV/Radio Age in 1990 for some $500,000 and then changed its mind. Besas acknowledges that the "other serious competition" to Variety was from my former boss Paul. Another was Broadcasting, founded in 1931 by Sol Taishoff (Paul's former boss).

It isn't correct to say that Paul was also offered $14 million in the late 1970s (but rather in the mid '80s) after the sale of Broadcasting to Times Mirror for $75 million. Paul deemed his publication to be a higher caliber than Broadcasting, so he could not digest a lower offer.

Considering its 563 pages divided into 23 chapters, "Inside "Variety"" is voluminous. Even if one eliminated the 114 pages of notes, chronology, sources, selected bibliography and index, the book could well have done with half its pages. Indeed, the central part of Besas' book is trade-heavy and somewhat tedious. The first part, however, is charming and the last part (Chapter 23: "Icon on the Block") portrays some underlying drama.

The book sets the tone by opening with a description of a reception in October 1987. Given by Cahners Publishing, Variety's new owner, at Sardi's in New York and Chasen's in Los Angeles, the staff of Variety felt that it was going to work (if work at all) for "another" Variety.

Here is one scene as reported by Besas: Bill Platt, Cahners magazine division president, asked Daily Variety's editor Tom Pryor, "We believe in being advertiser-friendly, do you?" Pryor's reply: "We kick ass."

Subsequently, toward the end of the book, Besas returned to the tough attitudes Variety's muggs took against new management after they tried to assert control over the untamed reporters.

During his visit to Variety's L.A. office, Arthur Anderman (who was appointed by Cahners to ease out former publisher Syd Silverman), experienced first hand the Variety culture when he found outside the men's room a note from editor Tom Pryor to the salesforce: "This is the editorial area. Keep the f--- out."

Considering the old rivalry (now gone) between the weekly Variety in New York and the Daily Variety in Los Angeles, Besas went out of his way to praise the daily edition.

Despite the good anecdotes, the book fails to convey the great power that the weekly trade magazine had in the industry. What impressed me the most in the late '70s, early '80s was the fact that many top executives in the industry had to read in Variety what was going on in their own companies.

For advertising purposes, I recall how TV/Radio Age's sales director, Mort Miller, would first scan Variety and then make his sales pitch, either based on a Variety news item or by convincing the advertiser to give him the same page, leveraging the fact that TV/Radio Age could use four-color ads (unlike Variety ).

Besas also documented Variety's decline after its sale to Cahners, through both attitude and figures. At the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, Variety had 564 pages versus 620 pages the previous year (before the acquisition). The 1992 Cannes issue totaled 181 pages and in 1999 it had 70 ad pages. Besas didn't fully rationalize the reason for Variety dropping so many pages. In my view, it was mostly due to the cannibalism of Cahners' other TV and film trade publications. To date, Reed-Elsevier's Cahners owns some 14 TV trade magazines, plus those published by MIDEM.

That Variety's prestige would decline after its sale to Cahners was something felt outside the rag as well, but Besas documented only the fact that editor Roger Watkins admitted he would no longer get access to key people in the industry. Even today, important industry news is reported first in major dailies such as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In fact, the United Talent Agency's Jeremy Simmer was quoted by The New York Times as saying: "If we have to read it in the trades, we're in trouble."

In the early 1990s, Bruce Gordon (at that time president of Paramount TV International) offered to invest money if I could buy Variety and restore it to its former glory. In the winter of 1991 I met with Allen & Company (a finance corporation) but, after an initial interest, it dropped the project like a hot potato. Subsequently, I approached Jules Haimovitz, a financial whiz, who said that he "wouldn't touch Variety with a ten-foot pole" and that he'd rather invest $10 million (the value then assessed to Variety) in radio. When in 1993 Reed-Elsevier chairman Peter J. Davis wrote a letter that he had "no intention in engaging in further correspondence" with me, I dropped the project.

The book also chronicled the New York-based Variety's dramatic move on November 6, 1987 from its old building on West 46th Street , where it was located since 1920 (the building was demolished in 1988) to its new offices on Park Avenue South.

According to Besas, Variety was started in 1905 by a 32-year-old "gambler" named Sime (Simon) J. Silverman, with a $2,500 loan from his father-in-law. Silverman coined the motto "Bury the puff and give me the fact," while his wife Hattie created the distinctive Variety logo. Sime was also credited with the introduction of special sections. The birth of "slanguage" (e.g., "Sticks Nix Hick Pix") started in 1924 and would later require the publication of a Variety-English dictionary. Sime died in 1933 just after the first issue of Daily Variety was published to compete with The Hollywood Reporter, which started in Los Angeles in 1930. At that point Variety was run by Sime's son Sidne (Sid), who had worked on Variety since inception.

Besas also pointed out that until the 1940s, no bylines were given for articles, that Sime refused an offer of $1.2 million from William Randolph Hearst for Variety and that he died almost penniless. In 1956, Sid's son Syd became president of Variety at the age of 24. He sold the paper to Cahners in the hopes of seeing his dream of an East Coast Daily Variety fulfilled.