I just got off the phone with Charlie who laughed when I asked if this was another one of those "I'm leaving to spend more time with my family" job exits. "While I adore my family, this isn't about that. And though I just turned 45, it's not a premature mid-life crisis either," said the president and publisher of Variety and Reed Business Entertainment Group since 2000. "I've stayed here for 17 years because I've been able to do new things. But now I've done what I can do here. It's my time to find private equity or venture capital and find a business and be an entrepreneur. I couldn't be more excited."
While I've had my differences with Variety as a publication, Koones is a real gentleman and Hollywood will miss him when he leaves March 1. Taking his place as president and publisher is Neil Stiles, currently division managing director for Reed Business. 
Koones started with Variety in ad sales in NYC. When Daily Variety and Weekly Variety were put together, he was brought to Los Angeles to run marketing. He helped get Variety into the special issues business, then took over sales and marketing. In 1998, he launched Variety.com and also the Gotham edition. In addition to his present position, he has portfolio responsibility over Marketcast, the marketing research company he acquired for Reed in 1999 to compete with NRG.
What I wanna know is, why was the announcement of his leaving so devoid of the usual platitudes? Heck, there was barely a quote from Reed Business boss Tad Smith.
It’s not a shocker to me. A 45 year old guy who has been watching the business intently for 17 years would realize that there has never been a more perfect moment to take his business acumen and his many relationships with creatives and court the vast private capital that is sniffing around our business at present.
As I posted on the day two strike talk report here:
“The old media dinosaurs have one more chance to avoid the meteor that is heading their way, and the first step is to settle this strike and rekindle their relationships with the creative community, for we are, in this business, the means of production.
If they don’t, they will watch as the meteor hits and destroys their little Jurassic Park. The meteor is private capital and digital distribution.
Watch out, companies.”
Charlie Koones is clearly weary of running a company newsletter for the companies who are doing such a poor job of management, and would rather take his knowlege and BECOME one of the companies. Good for him.
The studios should realize that with every passing day their greatest currency, their relationships with known content providers, gets more poisoned. Any gains they can make by stalling are vastly outweighed by the moves of people like Charlie Koones, who see that the opportunities have never been richer for those with money who are willing to be good managers, rather than bullying fear mongers.
As the LA Times said in it’s recent article “Come On Writers, Script Your Future”:
“Why does Larry David need HBO?”
Why indeed. With a world awash in investment capital, and new means of distribution already in place in countries like Germany, the business of being a movie studio or network is up for grabs.
After all, do you think any movie goer goes to see a movie because there’s a little Warner Brothers logo on the corner of the one sheet?
Cable has proven that people don’t watch a show because it’s on a particular channel, and when you can get any show on the internet, the networks control on TV distribution will slip even more.
If the dinosaur companies want to stay in the game they will settle this and get back to the business of trying to outrun the meteor.
Meanwhile, I’ll be happy to work for Charlie Koones if he funds my movie or television show and leaves the creative work to the creative people. As TV veteran Marshall Herskovitz pointed out in his LA Times editorial piece, the interference of executives in TV has never been worse, and not coindentally, TV has never been worse.
A smart manager would eliminate the executive layers and devote that money to developing new and existing talent producing actual product.
I hope Charlie Koones is that guy, but if he’s not, there are plenty of candidates who will figure it out and treat the artists (the means of production) as the valuable commodity they are.
Comment by WGA Writer with Business Sense — November 28, 2007 @ 10:59 am
Sounds like someone got sick of listening to Peter Bart’s stories about the old days at Paramount…
Comment by ReelBusy — November 28, 2007 @ 11:27 am
Charlie, good luck on your next venture as entrepreneur. How about a complete change from ink to digital? There’s this crazy box-thing sitting on everyone’s desk and a bunch of creatives want to put on a show, see….
Comment by Adrienne Merrill — November 28, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
Printed news is slowly dying. Nobody can reverse that trend. The smart people are securing their future in a post newspaper world.
Comment by Hearst is dead — November 28, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
“WGA Writer with Business Sense” is correct - people do not go to a movie because of a Warner Bros. logo, for example. It’s all about the content, and the role of the artist is coming into sharper focus.
(incidentally, we will no longer go to ANY Warner Bros. movies since the Jeff Robinov fiasco - not that we’re missing much coming out of that garbage factory)
Beware bald short men who hate women.
Comment by United 18-49 yr olds with Buying Power — November 28, 2007 @ 5:19 pm