Janice Min said in May that her reign at The Hollywood Reporter would be focused on, first and foremost, becoming a must-read for business insiders and shying away from the minutiae of covering Hollywood. But according to Sharon Waxman, editor of The Wrap, Ms. Min's Us Weekly sensibility is driving these readers away.
Ms. Waxman points to a story about Jennifer Aniston's latest film The Switch. A THR article about the film's lackluster box office ran under the headline "'Switch' a bitch for Jennifer Aniston." That sort of language is unbecoming for a trade publication. Ms. Waxman continues:
If the aggressive headlines are meant to spark attention, other August headlines are focusing on warmer, fuzzier celebrity fare, including such articles as: “Emma Thompson deals with ‘mild depression'" and “Mary Kate Olsen opens up about early career.”
This is the kind of fluff Ms. Min said she told The New York Times she was going to avoid at the beginning of the summer.
“For an industry publication, they’ve got to decide what they are," one Hollywood publicist told Ms. Waxman. "It certainly seems a little out of place.”
Fair enough, but also worth noting that this is essentially a hit piece on Ms. Waxman's competition, and it comes two days after THR announced that it was slaughtering The Wrap in traffic.
(via)