Entertainment Papers Focus on Terrorism’s Impact on Industry

Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, the trade papers that serve as the daily bibles of the entertainment industry, abandoned their traditional coverage in Wednesday’s editions to focus on “The Attack on America,” as the Reporter’s cover line put it.

The Reporter’s cover featured a full-color photograph of the smoking twin towers of the World Trade Center, and every story in the 16-page, ad-free issue was devoted to the terrorist attack and its impact on the entertainment industry.

Robert Dowling, publisher and editor in chief of the Reporter, said advertisers scheduled to appear in Wednesday’s paper were given the opportunity not to appear, and most opted out. Ads were removed for those few who could not be reached. “We decided that ads were not the most appropriate things to have in the paper today,” Dowling said.

Variety, the Reporter’s larger rival, devoted about half of its 20 pages to advertising. Unlike the Reporter, Variety also included some routine entertainment news on three of its 10 editorial pages.

Still, Variety looked very different and much more sober than usual, with a color photograph on Page One of a man amid the debris in New York and stories throughout on the effects of the attacks on the various components of the entertainment industry.