Premiere Magazine folds!

[Reza]

Just checked and Movieline still exists but as Hollywood Life.

www.movieline.com

Penelope check out a very glamorous Kate Winslet on the cover of this magazine.

And Damien she is very slim now.

[Reza]

I have every copy of Premiere and will sorely miss not having it on a monthly basis.

Yes Movieline was also cool. I think it merged into another magazine and became Movieline's Hollywood Life. This became more in line with In Style magazine. However, save for a few issues I could never find it anymore in Pakistan.

[Precious Doll]

I was never a reader of Premire magazine. I have only ever bought 3 issues but it was always worth thumbing through.

Shame it was Empire that went under. Hopefully it's days are numbered.

[Damien]

Absolutely, Magilla. Premiere was essentially a Variety for those not in the biz (as Variety itself would put it), and it made members of the public almost a part of the biz.

Penenlope, Movieline was great fun (it was more or less a gay/bitchy version of Premiere). I haven't seen it in anges, so I assumed it's gone under.

[Big Magilla]

Variety has been reporting on the movie buisness since 1907, but its print edition has always been basically for show biz insiders. Premiere was unique in that it was produced for the masses. The wordwide web has changed all that, of course. We now have instant access to information that otherwise we wouldn't know until we got our monthly, or in the case of EW, weeky magazine. It's the staleness of the information, as well as the decline in quality of its articles, that has hastened its demise.

[OscarGuy]

Well, a toast to the first magazine I was ever published in.

For those of you who were too young at the time, it can not be overstated what an impact Premiere had in its early days. There had never before been a magazine which made the general public privy to Hollywood deals, forthcoming projects, the status of various Hollywood players -- it was fairly revolutuionary in the way the industry was covered. And it was a hell of a lot of fun, with attitude but not bitchiness.

Variety may have put an end to that. Variety has a lot of the same kinds of articles, but it is seen as a more "professional" mag.

[VanHelsing]

Can't you ask for a refund?

Gonna check out their website soon. Love their Power 100 Celeb list, Summer & Fall movie previews.

[Big Magilla]

The latter, but that could change.

I have a print subsription which runs through Sep '08 so I'm essentially screwed.

[VanHelsing]

I used to buy them especially the Summer Movie Preview issues. But stopped so as to cut down on my budget.
So, are the online content subscription-based or free? Of course, I'm hoping for the latter.

[Penelope]

Damien, I do remember an Oscar article you wrote for Premiere, which included a lovely tribute to Mason Wiley.

It was an fine magazine...back in the late 80s, 90s; although, my personal fave in the 90s was Movieline--now THAT was a snarky magazine, with much more of an outsider sensibility than Premiere. I subscribed to it throughout the 90s, but then it went downhill--I have no idea if it's still published.

[Akash]

What was your first article about Damien?

[Damien]

Well, a toast to the first magazine I was ever published in.

For those of you who were too young at the time, it can not be overstated what an impact Premiere had in its early days. There had never before been a magazine which made the general public privy to Hollywood deals, forthcoming projects, the status of various Hollywood players -- it was fairly revolutuionary in the way the industry was covered. And it was a hell of a lot of fun, with attitude but not bitchiness.

[paperboy]

I hope Libby Gelman-Waxner had a healthy pension plan.

[flipp525]

I think the print magazine business, in general, is in trouble.

[Reza]

Daily Variety 3/5/07

Premiere folds
Magazine will continue online
By STEVEN ZEITCHIK
Hachette Filipacchi pulled the plug on Premiere on Monday, confirming
widespread rumors that the embattled movie mag would be shuttered.

Many of the company's editorial staffers will leave the company,
including editor-in-chief Peter Herbst.

The April issue, which features Will Ferrell on the cover for "Blades
of Glory," will be mag's last. Staffers put the issue to bed about 10 days ago.

Premiere publisher Paul Turcotte could be named to another post
within Hachette, though there was no official confirmation of a new role.

Magazine, published 10 times per year, will continue to exist online.

Specifics on how many staffers would migrate, how often content will
be refreshed and how many of the mag's regular features will be
maintained were undisclosed.

News of its print demise brings to an end what has been something of
a media soap opera for the New York-based title, which employs five
print editorial staffers in its Hollywood bureau and an estimated
couple dozen in its flagship Gotham offices.

Hachette and parent company Lagardere were trying to sell the title
earlier this year, but bidders were reportedly thin for the troubled
pub. Mag saw its ad pages decline nearly 25% in 2006.

Announcement marks the closure of another pub for Hachette, which
also shuttered Elle Girl and startup Shock.

The 20-year-old Premiere had its heyday in the 1990s, when the
appetite for insider movie news grew.

Even today, mag publishes a Hollywood power list and industry
scuttlebutt under sections like "Yes It's True: News You're Not
Supposed to Know," alongside more consumer-friendly stories, such as
a list of overrated movies.

But the trade-flavored pieces in which Premiere once specialized have
become less relevant as consumer dailies have taken more of an
interest in the biz, while sites like Defamer have proliferated to
satisfy the demand for near-instantaneous industry gossip.

Premiere also faced the challenge of being a long-lead mag in a realm
where news moves increasingly quickly. For example, Oscar predictions
made months in advance now run the risk of becoming stale by the time
the print edition hits newsstands.

And while interest in celeb news is by many indications stronger than
ever, sites like TMZ and PerezHilton have proved more adept at
breaking and keeping up with news.

Hachette's latest strategy is to move in a newsier direction,
offering more timely items on Premiere.com and mobile platforms --
routes that would also be less costly.

"This step is consistent with our strategy to examine our portfolio
of brands to determine the best business plan for each, based on its
category and the marketplace," Hachette prexy-CEO Jack Kliger said in
a statement.