Deadline Parties Like It's 1999

That's because the staff is looking more like a collection of pre-Millennium trade reporters every single day. The top folks (Mike Fleming, Nellie Andreeva) are from trades. Their editorial staff (Patrick Hipes, Kinsey Lowe) are from trades. Even recent hire Nancy Tartaglione is from a trade. And now I see that Don Groves has been added to the mix Down Under. Groves was, of course, Variety’s big gun in Australia for many years…both on the editorial and publishing side. There’s no problem…all of these folks are solid. But I really hope Queen Finke has stopped banging the “we are NOT a trade” drum around town. Because they are. In every way. They're just, well, a better read.