hollywoodreporter.com

Today, there are many websites available to keep up with entertainment news. This can be a challenge as it can be difficult to decide which website to choose. Obviously, you don't have to pick a single entertainment news site to get the latest information on films and television. Some film and TV buffs believe that it's more productive to keep track of several different entertainment news sites simultaneously; perhaps even subscribing to updates and newsletters from a few of them would be optimal.

That being said, it does make sense to have a main go-to resource for news. Why bother surveying dozens of different news sources when you could, theoretically, find the best one on the web - one that is reliable, has high-quality content, and is skewed towards topics and celebrities that interest you?

Some entertainment news junkies believe that older, more established news sources are always better for entertainment news because they have a longer history of quality writing and content. After all, these outlets have built up reputations over time and their content is usually of a higher quality.

Those who value longevity as a measure of quality in news outlets might point to publications that have dominated the 20th century as well as maintained their status throughout the shift to digital news of the 21st. If this is something that you tend to prioritize, you might be more likely to favor publications such as Rolling Stone, People magazine, or Entertainment Weekly. All of these publications have been in business (and consistently publishing quality content) for at least 40 years now.

However, I think that The Hollywood Reporter gets unfairly overlooked in this discussion of institutions of the entertainment news world. As one of the longest-running entertainment news rags in the world, The Hollywood Reporter has a lot to offer - both online and in print.

History

Believe it or not, The Hollywood Reporter was originally founded in 1930. It was created by Las Vegas real estate developer, William R. Wilkerson, and it existed as Hollywood?s first-ever daily trade newspaper. The Hollywood Reporter’s first issue was put into circulation on September 3rd, 1930, prominently featuring Wilkerson’s front-page column, ?Trade Views,? which would become one of the most influential formats in the Hollywood trade newspaper format. The paper would go on to be published every day, from Monday to Saturday, for the first 10 years of its existence (save for a brief period in which it only appeared Monday to Friday in 1940). After founding The Hollywood Reporter in September of 1962, Billy Wilkerson worked on the publication until his death in September of 1962. Upon his passing away, The Hollywood Reporter was taken over by Wilkerson?s wife, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel. Kassel served as publisher and editor-in-chief, too, until her death. The Hollywood Reporter, for all intents and purposes, is one of those rare publications that has remained family run and operated for much of its run - with a level of commitment and dedication seldom seen in the world of journalism (let alone entertainment journalism).

The Hollywood Reporter has a sordid history in that it played a pivotal role in identifying potential communists during the days of McCarthyism in the United States. Billy Wilkerson, according to his obituary in The Hollywood Reporter, ?named names, pseudonyms and card numbers and was widely credited with being chiefly responsible for preventing communists from becoming entrenched in Hollywood production.?

world. This resulted in the arrests, imprisonment, and largely unjust trials of numerous Hollywood actors, writers, and producers. "Billy's List" led to the arrests of Dalton Trumbo and Howard Koch for allegedly holding communistic ideologies. This is something that, apparently, both Wilkerson and The Hollywood Reporter have held a great deal of pride over. Today, though, it appears as if The Hollywood Reporter - rather wisely, in my opinion - has largely kept their noses out of politics and instead where it belongs: covering the latest stories in the Hollywood film world.

Design

The Hollywood Reporter's overall look and feel is beautiful. They took the essence of a trade paper and turned it into a digital space, which I always respect. As far as news sites are concerned, The Hollywood Reporter looks very professional and crisp. Unlike many clickbait junk-sites, The Hollywood Reporter doesn't overly cluttered with content, unnecessarily flashy, or sophomoric in the way that it presents itself. Frankly, it looks more like The New York Times than it does, say, Pop Sugar or something like that. Which I love. I don't know where this idea came from that entertainment news is to be held to a lower standard of journalism than any other kind of news. I definitely appreciate that The Hollywood Reporter takes themselves seriously as a journalistic enterprise, regardless of the kind of content that they tend to report on.

Content

Will you please take a journey through The Hollywood Reporter's menu bar, which is conveniently and clearly located at the top of the page? Here, you will find a slender and sharply designed portal to everything that THR has to offer. I think that you will be pleased, too, with the breadth of content that this site covers. The Hollywood Reporter offers a variety of content, from movies, TV, business, style, tech, awards, culture, politics and video. Readers of all walks of life will likely find something of interest on the site.

Mobile and Desktop Experience

As I have already mentioned, I love the desktop experience of the website. And, as I must say, the website is very well optimized for mobile browsers. You will have to deal with a few more pop-ups and ads when accessing the site on your mobile device, but that is to be expected for most news sites. I find it troubling that The Hollywood Reporter does not have an app. This seems like a major oversight in 2020 and an app would be extremely helpful on a phone. With web layouts not always looking great on phones, an app would make the site more readable. If The Hollywood Reporter were to become the number one source of entertainment news, this would be largely due to their app

Pricing and Plans

one year, two years, and three years. The Hollywood Reporter does not offer a monthly subscription option the way that many news outlets are wont to do. Instead, they offer three-yearly subscription options. The options are the following: one (1), two (2), or three (3) years. -All Access: A yearly subscription that offers archive access, weekly print and digital publication, and exclusive daily publication.

Digital All Access: $129/year entitles users to all of the benefits described in the previous paragraph, minus the physical copies.

-Print/Digital: Just $99/year to receive the weekly publication in both digital and print format.

Suggestions that I have for The Hollywood Reporter

I think it would be really useful for The Hollywood Reporter to put out an accompanying app with all of the latest news and articles. This is something that I think the site could easily do and would be a valuable addition for its users.

Conclusion

If The Hollywood Reporter created an app that was as well designed as their website, and eliminated their yearly subscription fee, I believe it could be the perfect source of entertainment news. However, as it stands currently, I believe it is worth your time to read their website.