Awards have always been a bedrock of our coverage at The Hollywood Reporter. We devote an enormous amount of time, energy and ink to the Oscars, the Emmys and the many other statuettes that crowd the Hollywood calendar each year.
When I first arrived at THR a few years ago, fresh to the trades, I was struck by the money, manpower and near-religious fervor Hollywood devotes to awards. Was this simply another symptom of an industry endlessly fascinated with itself?
I’m no longer so sure.
At a moment of profound uncertainty — for Hollywood and for journalism — recognition from your readers and your peers can mean more than another trophy for the shelf. It can be a sign that the work is connecting, that it matters and that somebody out there is still paying attention.
Over the past few years, we’ve worked to make THR newsier, sharper and more ambitious: breaking the daily news of Hollywood while going deeper on the people and institutions reshaping it. We’ve launched popular newsletters devoted to style and the London entertainment industry, opened our pages to provocative new columnists and brought rigor, wit and urgency to everything from boardroom upheavals to the Taylor Swift nuptials.
The work is paying off. While AI and the collapse of social and search referrals have battered digital media, THR has bucked the trend, posting year-over-year audience growth in six months this year and replacing fleeting traffic from Google, Facebook and Instagram with something far more valuable: readers who seek us out and come to us directly.
Team THR includes, clockwise from top left: Jackie Strause; Tony Maglio, Julian Sancton, David Rooney, Caitlin Huston, Laura Tucker, Lexi Carson, Alex Weprin, Erik Hayden, Kevin Dolak and Hilary Lewis; Gary Baum and Seth Abramovitch; Aaron Couch, Ryan Gajewski, Seija Rankin, Scott Feinberg, Katie Kilkenny, Nicole Fell, Darah Head, Mary Franz, Alison Edmond, Kirsten Hageleit and Ash Barhamand; Lexy Perez; Jason Rovou, Tiffany Taylor and Harry Buerkle; Abid Rahman; Carly Thomas and McKinley Franklin; Kimberly Nordyke
Our peers have noticed, too. THR won the Webby People’s Voice Award for best website and an ASME for our “Stuck” cover. And just last month, we enjoyed a record night at the Los Angeles Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards, taking home 44 prizes — including 20 first-place honors, more than any other publication.
The honors reflected the remarkable range of the newsroom. Gary Baum was named print journalist of the year, Seth Abramovitch entertainment journalist of the year, David Rooney best film critic and Scott Feinberg best audio host. THR was also named best website, while creative director Ada Guerin took first place for cover art. Our video team won for both its Actresses Roundtable and a feature on the video-store owner defying the streaming era — and, just recently, Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter received a Daytime Emmy nomination.
And we’re not done. New video franchises, a provocative slate of podcasts and newsletters devoted to Canada, AI and music are all coming soon. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the extraordinary staff pictured here: journalists who are curious, experienced, fiercely competitive and, despite everything, still excited by the work. None of this happens without them.
After decades as a journalist, I still think there’s nothing more fun and rewarding than being first on a story, scoring that impossible interview, producing the cover that everyone’s talking about. But posing with 20 first-place prizes at the Biltmore ain’t so bad, either. It’s the kind of fun you can brag about to your mom or (tastefully!) show off in your office. And even a staff full of skeptics will find it hard to be blasé about that.
This story appeared in the July 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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