The story sort of broke yesterday, on The Wrap, but it was a mere headline with no story attached – now there is a story. Over at paidContent, though, Rafat Ali is on the case:
Anne Thompson, former deputy editor of Variety.com and a blogger in her own right on Thompsononhollywood blog since 2007, has now broken away from Variety and gone indie, in more ways than one. She was laid off from Variety in Jan this year, but continued publishing her blog with them until now. TheWrap reports that she will go independent after this month, and has signed up with Rick Allen, the CEO of SnagFilms and IndieWire, to promote and sell ads on her blog. She will also get promotion through IndieWire network. Are we going to see more brand-name journalists going IndieWire’s way?
This is a stellar move for Indiewire, and Thompson’s solid industry standing should get them many-a-scoop, adding to their already great team of writers, Eugene Hernandez and Peter Knegt among them. It’s a good fit for Thompson, who is really one of the few true journos who are making the transition to the blog-dominated media universe. It’s been an interesting year for women in journalism in total, with Nikki Finke’s success, Sharon Waxman starting The Wrap, and now Anne Thompson’s move to Indiewire. It’s no longer a boyman’s game. Sorry, just had to get one in. “Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto.”
In other news, and the bloggers are in a twist about this, Bonnie Fuller will now work as editor-in-chief for Hollywoodlife.com, owned by Mail.com (now also the home of Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily blog). And somehow David Carr is in the middle of the shitstorm breaking the news.
