Variety

Overview

Variety is the American entertainment trade publication founded in 1905 by Sime Silverman as a New York weekly covering theater and vaudeville, owned by Penske Media Corporation since October 2012, and distinguished by “slanguage” — the industry jargon credited with originating Oxford English Dictionary entries such as “striptease,” “payola,” and “boffo” (AFP; NPR). It is the trade paper whose reporting originated the Michael (2026) biopic’s reshoot story: the 22-day June 2025 reshoot, the $10–15 million added cost, and the settlement clause that forced the film’s third act to be scrapped (The Playlist).

Now based in Los Angeles, Variety covers film, television, theatre, and digital media with breaking news, reviews, and box-office reporting; its parent company describes it as the industry’s premier entertainment-news source for more than a century (PMC).

From a vaudeville weekly to a Hollywood daily

Variety began in 1905 as a weekly covering vaudeville in New York, then added a Los Angeles daily in 1933 to cover the motion-picture business, and established a web edition in 1998 (AFP). At the 2012 sale, Variety president Neil Stiles framed the paper’s stewardship eras as the Silverman family for roughly 80 years and Reed Elsevier for roughly 20 (AFP). Through the century the paper kept its insider’s posture: its longtime competitor is The Hollywood Reporter, and even in the digital transition NPR noted it still turned a profit (NPR).

Slanguage: the jargon that entered the dictionary

For much of its life, Variety wrote in “slanguage” — a compressed industry jargon its writers used to pack meaning into small headlines and stories (NPR). When the paper marked its 100th birthday in 2005, NPR credited it with originating OED entries including “striptease,” “payola,” and “boffo” (NPR). Executive editor Tim Gray compiled nearly 200 of the terms in The Hollywood Dictionary, released by Welcome Books that fall — evidence that a newsroom’s in-jokes had become the industry’s working vocabulary (NPR). The idiom survives in daily use: covering the 2012 sale, NPR’s Morning Edition judged the deal “boffo and not a flopola,” noting that Variety puts such words on its front page every day (NPR).

The Penske era — and the Michael reshoot exclusive

In October 2012, Penske Media Corporation — already the owner of Variety’s upstart online rival, Deadline.com — bought the 107-year-old daily from Reed Business Information for a reported $25 million (NPR; AFP). That $25 million bought a 107-year-old institution for less than a single modern blockbuster’s marketing budget — an implied verdict on how far print-trade valuations had fallen in the digital transition. The paper’s current editorial leadership dates to January 2022, when Ramin Setoodeh was elevated to co-editor-in-chief alongside Cynthia Littleton, a television-beat veteran of more than 25 years (PMC).

Variety’s trade function — telling the industry what actually happened inside a production — was on full display in April 2026, when its reporting revealed why Antoine Fuqua’s Michael had been rebuilt: attorneys for the Jackson estate discovered a clause in a settlement with accuser Jordan Chandler barring his depiction or mention in any film, forcing the scrapping of the entire third act (including a 1993 Neverland Ranch opening sequence) and a 22-day Los Angeles reshoot in June 2025 that added $10–15 million to the $155 million budget (The Playlist). Because the oversight was the estate’s own, it covered the added costs and took an equity stake in the film — the kind of money-and-law detail only trade reporting tends to surface (The Playlist).

Editions

Edition	Launched	Base	Original beat
Weekly Variety	1905	New York City	Theater and vaudeville (AFP)
Daily Variety	1933	Los Angeles	The motion-picture industry (AFP)
Variety.com	1998	Web	Breaking entertainment news (AFP)

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Variety? Penske Media Corporation has owned Variety since October 2012, when it bought the paper and its web operations from Reed Business Information (part of Reed Elsevier); NPR reported the price at $25 million, while AFP reported the terms as undisclosed. PMC already owned Deadline.com, Variety’s upstart online rival, at the time of purchase.

What is “slanguage”? Variety’s signature industry jargon — compressed terms used in its headlines and stories. NPR credits the paper with originating OED entries including “striptease,” “payola,” and “boffo.” Executive editor Tim Gray collected nearly 200 of the terms in The Hollywood Dictionary (Welcome Books, 2005), and words like “boffo” still appear on the front page daily.

Who runs Variety’s newsroom? As of the latest verified announcement (January 2022), co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton lead editorial operations, reporting to the publisher. Setoodeh created the “Actors on Actors” franchise; Littleton is a 25-plus-year television-beat veteran and author of books on the 2007–08 writers’ strike and the WB/UPN networks.

What did Variety report about the Michael biopic? In April 2026, Variety originated the story that the film’s third act had been scrapped after estate attorneys found a settlement clause barring depiction or mention of accuser Jordan Chandler — forcing a 22-day June 2025 reshoot adding $10–15 million to the $155 million budget, costs the estate covered in exchange for an equity stake.

What this profile does not claim

• It does not assert a resolved 2012 sale price: NPR reported $25 million; AFP reported the terms as undisclosed.
• It does not assert the 1987 sale details (reportedly to Cahners Publishing for $64 million), which appear only in tertiary sources.
• It does not repeat the founding-circumstance story (the Morning Telegraph firing, the $1,500 father-in-law loan) or the “first film review in history” claim, both unverified in a full-read source this pass.
• It does not name a byline for the original Variety reshoot exclusive, which was not verified.
• It does not describe masthead changes after the January 2022 announcement; later reorganization reporting was not verified.
• It does not treat variety.com as a source for the reshoot facts — they rest on The Playlist’s full carriage of Variety’s reporting.

What we could not verify

• Whether the reported $25 million 2012 price or the “terms undisclosed” version is correct.
• The terms and parties of the 1987 ownership transfer out of the Silverman family.
• Founding-circumstance details (advertiser-driven firing, loan amount and source).
• The January 19, 1907 “first film review” attribution.
• Any editorial or business leadership changes after January 2022.

Sources

• NPR (Morning Edition), “Showbiz Daily ‘Variety’ Sold To Penske Media,” 10 October 2012 — the $25M sale to PMC, PMC’s ownership of Deadline.com, the Hollywood Reporter rivalry, the “boffo”/“flopola” idiom. Read
• NPR, “A Century of ‘Variety’-Speak,” 17 June 2005 — the 2005 centenary, OED entries originated, Tim Gray, The Hollywood Dictionary. Read
• The Playlist, “‘Michael’… Underwent $15M Reshoots… [Report],” 7 April 2026 — full carriage of Variety’s reshoot exclusive. Read
• AFP, “Show biz paper ‘Variety’ gets new owner,” 9 October 2012 — the PMC purchase, edition history, stewardship eras, PMC’s brand stable. Read
• Penske Media Corporation, “Ramin Setoodeh Tapped to Lead Variety…,” 10 January 2022 — masthead facts (first-party). Read