So if you're one of the 10 readers of The Hollywood Reporter left in this town, then you may have noticed today's rebrand. Yes, it looks cleaner and sharper. 
But ultimately it's what's inside the trade paper that counts. "It all has a fresh-coat-of-paint-on-the-Titanic vibe to me," one THR source tells me. "I think the money could have been far better spent keeping bodies in the building that are now sorely, desperately needed."
Insiders tell me that today's THR.com launch was supposed to "correct" 
the 2006 site redesign that was perceived as "botched" mostly by the newsroom and the new executives. (Feedback from actual readers and metrics then were generally good.) Most of the inside-the-trade complaints concerned navigation issues. The newsroom thought breaking news was buried or hard to find. The business development side wanted a permanent home for its advertorial issues to grow consumer traffic. And advertising wanted more prominent video to sell pre-rolls. So does the new site solve any of these?
Insiders aren't sure what the new design accomplishes and they doubt if anybody there will be happy. The new site has fewer news positions and more flash modules, no features landing page at all, and still no pre-rolls on the videos a year after the video launch. Also gone is the iconic logo while there's no RSS. I'm told that video windfall promises were supposed to pay for this new design so the continued lack of it makes no sense.
"Soft ads but more expenses equal the 9 newsroom layoffs a couple weeks back...," a source says. "This is a misguided attempt to chase elusive 'prosumer' traffic of the global entertainment audience that doesn't advertise or work in Hollywood so whatever industry advertisers are left have no interest in reaching and so will provide no revenue growth."
Meanwhile, the architect of all this is unpopular publisher Eric Mika who is described to me as "the antichrist" and as "a prick with all the people skills of a feral pig".
All that I can say about the redesign is that it
stinks- I saw the redesign last night when I paid my nightly visit to the Hollywood Reporter website and the redesign was too hard to navigate through and it did not give me my news and Hollywood headlines in the quick fashion that I like to have them in. Whoever ordered this costly redesign of the Hollywood Reporter’s website should be fired. Us Hollywood Types
don’t have time for the hype- we just want our news and headlines.
Comment by News Junkie — April 28, 2008 @ 11:22 am
Six readers? Make that seven. I got addicted during the strike and I can’t quit you.
I’ll continue reading as long as you have a venue. I really do appreciate you covering the business side of entertainment and not the silly, personal gossip side. Keep up the good work.
Comment by Former Striker — April 28, 2008 @ 11:31 am
Don’t like the HR new design.
Also, what’s up with that angry gasbag Ray Richmond? Every piece of his is bizarre, angry and so off the mark.
Comment by thumbs down — April 28, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
@Former Striker:
Apparently your addiction impaired your reading/comprehension skills. Nikki was understating the readership of esteemed (well, okay, not so much) insider rag, THe Hollywood Reporter, which actually has an even dozen readers. She was not referring to the hits on her own DHD page, which no doubt number in the thousands and thousands, most of which are writers like myself who are still trying to sell a script or two before the wolf actually knocks on the door and I have to go ficore in order to work.
Eric Mika the antichrist? I thought that was Nick Counter (or at the very least the heads of the AMTPT). Maybe there’s more than one antichrist, which would explain a lot about how this town operates.
Comment by J.J. — April 28, 2008 @ 12:40 pm
>>and not the silly, personal gossip side.
ARE YOU MAD?!??!?!?!? This new blog brand of Hollywood insider 24-hourly info is FUELED on the jet petrol of gossip and innuendo. It is the grand-daddy consumer of internet gossip gasoline. You could fly a fleet of Dreamliners for a year on the amount of it that drives DHD. It is making celebrities out of the people behind the celebrities. And they are loving every bit of it - they finally have people talking about THEM.
Comment by Bob F — April 28, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
I don’t know Eric Mika. I don’t know the person that said he was the “antichrist.” And, I don’t know you, Nikki. But, it’s easy to find someone in Hollywood who will say vile vicious things about anyone. What good does writing this do? DOes it settle a score between the two? It’s beneath you, Nikki. It’s pointless. And it demeans your site. Eric Mika may be the “antichrist.” But gleefully including it in a story about THR’s re-design is pitiful. And, makes me re-think visiting deadlinehollywooddaily. Try and live above the fray…thefood is better up here.
Comment by Strike, Schmike — April 28, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
The magazine redesign is AWFUL
not only does it now look like a “tech” magazine..whatever that thing is on the top of the left hand page ON EVERY PAGE is worthless.
just a matter of time before it goes under and we are left with a real news platform.. Deadlinehollywooddaily.com
start a magazine Nikki
Comment by designer — April 28, 2008 @ 2:07 pm
Oh now come on, that’s not fair! I’ve known a few sociable feral pigs and they’re ok after a few drinks.
Comment by Rory L. Aronsky — April 28, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
If THR has only 10 readers, why are you even writing about it?
Comment by Fred — April 28, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
THR has been in a death-spiral since Howard Burns left (yes Nikki, a real journalist) . At least the newsroom was sane, well-run, and collegial - which was the one HUGE advantage it had over the other guys.
I know the Venture Capital schmucks who bought VNU (back when credit was good) are determined to dismantle it, but Mika’s reign has truly added a real “Heckuva job, Brownie” pathetic-ness to it all.
Maybe Geffen or Burkle will buy the Trades and save all the hardworking newsroom folks at THR and Variety from the misdirected machinations of masthead morons.
Those writers (who are similarly abused, paid substantially less - all without any agent to cushion the blows) deserve as much support as any WGA scribe.
Comment by DL Brown — April 28, 2008 @ 3:25 pm
The new site completely and utterly sucks! The old site wasn’t that bad. The new one just blows. You can’t find a goddamned thing.
Comment by bad news, dickheads — April 28, 2008 @ 3:41 pm
Cleaner and sharper it may be, but the design reminds me of European tabloids. Is this where THR is headed ultimately, after laying even more people off, all show and no substance, like everything else in Hwood?
I don’t get how people waste money on something that is no real improvement, merely a cosmetic procedure, while wondering at the same time if this superficial overhaul will make it to the awful plastic surgery site one of these days…
Comment by Nanea — April 28, 2008 @ 4:25 pm
I hate the way it looks, like a budget version of newsweek or something. Still got the typos though!
Comment by brian — April 28, 2008 @ 4:25 pm
Being “a prick with all the people skills of a feral pig” means success in this town, doesn’t it?
Comment by T.Obvious — April 28, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Why is THR the slowest website to load on the internet?
Comment by Slow — April 28, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
THR is the slowest website EVER. Ctrl+Alt+Del, END TASK. Sound familiar.
Comment by PHIL DALE DUCKIE — April 29, 2008 @ 12:31 am
THR is painfully slow. I’ve emailed, but they’ve yet to respond.
It’s also a jumbled mess in terms of interface.
What I want is a quick scan of the news. Top stories, features, reviews, and charts, and then happily move on with my day. Is that too much to ask?
Comment by Qikfingers — April 29, 2008 @ 8:14 am
Funny how nobody mentions what a mess that OTHER Trade paper Variety is–maybe most of the posts are from the schmucks on the other side.
Comment by Joe Trade — April 29, 2008 @ 10:56 am
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer rag…
Comment by erquirk — April 29, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
@Comment by Fred — April 28, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
because, with all due respect to this site, the flea hunts the eagle not vice versa.
Look at celebrity gossip blogs they all trash Perezhilton.com and tmz.com but the truth is both of those sites are infinitely larger and more influential.
You have to cut down the competition a bit to move up in the race. Happens in any industry on earth really.
Comment by manny — April 29, 2008 @ 8:33 pm
The new logo is a 1,000 times better than the old one. You can actually read the word “Hollywood”.
Comment by Brian — May 1, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
Such a horrible thing to say about feral pigs!
Comment by mrpopo — May 2, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
Prosumer dollars can certainly be gotten on THR.com - take a look at the BMW ads all over Variety.com. It’s all in the selling and the positioning. What cannot be gotten is pre-roll revenue, as the average cpm for a pre-roll is $25 - $35.00 which means that users would need to click and watch the video pieces 1000 times a day to bring in $25. You do the math.
Comment by Inside trader — May 10, 2008 @ 8:48 am