The Trades

Neal Vitale has been named vice president and general manager of Variety Inc., responsible for Variety, Daily Variety and Variety Europe. Vitale, 39, had been vice president of consumer publishing for Cahners Publishing Co., which acquired the trade newspapers from the Silverman family in 1987.

Vitale, who will be based in Los Angeles, will be charged with expanding Variety’s role in the wake of consolidation of the production and editing staffs of weekly Variety and Daily Variety. This summer, weekly Variety will publish biweekly for the first time in its 88-year history. Cahners also said that Neil Perlman, senior vice president and group publisher who oversaw the Variety operation, would be leaving the company effective June 30 “to pursue other interests.”

Cahners offered no explanation for Perlman’s sudden departure--he relocated to Los Angeles from New York only a few months ago when the two papers were consolidated.