It is my great pleasure to welcome you to our 50th Anniversary SHOOT>e.dition. Our special Anniversary print issue will be in readers’ hands by the end of this week. Most of you know that the publication launched in December 1960 as Back Stage, a newspaper covering the theater and commercial production. The disparate sections were read by different audiences, each reading “their” half of the paper every week. In the late ’80s, original owners Ira Eaker and Allen Zwerdling sold to BPI (then publishers of Billboard, Hollywood Reporter and later Adweek) who split the newspaper in two in the summer of 1990.
With publishing experience covering entertainment, cable & TV syndication, launching and repositioning trade publications, I was hired as publisher in September 1990 to chart a course for the future. I loved meeting the industry, working with a great staff, fine-tuning our editorial mission and upgrading business and publishing operations. In 1990 our logo was Back Stage/SHOOT and for several years we made the Back Stage smaller and the SHOOT bigger until finally in January 1994 we became SHOOT. (Back Stage continues to thrive today as “the actors resource.”)
Some of my earliest meetings were with Bob Greenberg, Jon Kamen, Ray Lofaro, Texas East, Joseph Di Buono–talk about getting a great industry crash course! What I quickly learned to love about the industry is the passion that everyone has for their job and their craft. The ’90s were very good for SHOOT with tremendous growth each year. The actors’ strike in 2000 was not only a turning point for the industry but for SHOOT as well. Business got tougher and I began to realize how important it was for SHOOT to get online and to be able to show the great work we were writing about. However, that realization was not shared by upper management and it became clear to me that SHOOT needed a more nimble, entrepreneurial orientation to better serve our readership. During the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June of 2004, Bob Greenberg asked me why we didn’t show commercials on our site. I had been trying to do just that for years and Bob’s question was my epiphany. I realized after bringing many online companies to the negotiating table to purchase them over the last five years and our board or legal department always nixing the deal, that it was time to stop banging my head against the wall and move on. So after 14 years as SHOOT‘s publisher, I resigned in July 2004, but not before making an offer to buy the publication. The ownership called about six weeks later and we began a five-month negotiation that closed on December 31, 2004.
We’ve been very busy since our independence day on Jan. 1, 2005, first developing the SHOOTonline website, then launching The SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT PublicityWire Service and Brand New[s], expanding the scope of our annual New Directors Search and moving the Showcase event to the DGA Theater in NYC–and broadening our readership base to include entertainment production decision-makers and brand marketers. We love what we do, we love the industries that we cover, we are proud of our past, we embrace the present and we welcome the challenges of the future. This 50th Anniversary Issue reflects that spirit. We are inspired every day by the executives, creatives, producers and artisans that we talk to and report on.
Thank you to Bob Goldrich, SHOOT’s editor and our walking encyclopedia of industry knowledge and lore. Collaborating with Bob for the last twenty years has been and continues to be a great pleasure. Thank you to my husband Gerald Giannone for saying yes in 2004 to being my partner in the business. Thank you to production manager Mike Morgera who handles all print & digital production. I’d also like to thank all the talented people who worked for us over the years, making their mark during their time at SHOOT.
As the industry continues to evolve, so does SHOOT. But our primary mission remains steadfast–to provide readers with the latest industry news, best new work, great new talent, changing business models, relevant technology advancements, and discussion of industry issues and concerns. In turn, that helps our marketing clients to always have a great environment in which to promote their companies. SHOOT is more digital than print these days but we continue to believe that there is great value in print for readers and marketers.
While we love all the online and mobile digital formats, and plan to continue to add new digital formats, there is and always will be something very special and enduring about print; about holding it, carrying it around, putting it down, picking it up, saving it, looking at it again in the future. Potential clients seeing an ad within an environment they respect and trust helps marketers speak directly to readers as they flip back and forth through the issue. While digital is wonderful and immediate, it’s also somewhat fleeting, there’s a lot that’s not so great–and so often what is great gets totally or partially ignored. Print advertising helps to make a splash, to make a point, to drive a message home–whether it’s brand oriented or sales oriented. SHOOT readers have a long-standing emotional relationship with the publication. Industry leaders have been reading it their entire careers and those brand new to the industry start reading it when they enter the industry. Because of this, SHOOT always offers marketers an audience of new and experienced readers of all title levels in all segments of the industry. While many production and post companies have reduced a print advertising presence in recent years, we’re hopeful it’s only a matter of time until they realize what an important piece of the marketing pie they are missing and that in today’s world an integrated approach that includes SHOOT print and digital advertising is the one that will bring them the most attention.
In 2010, we continued to expand new digital offerings that complement SHOOT Magazine and SHOOTonline with the New Directors Showcase site and the SPW Channel associated with the SHOOT Publicity Wire Service. We will be introducing several new online elements and enhancements in 2011.
If there’s a secret to our longevity, it might be that we have always believed that each part of the production process is as important as the next, that each segment of the industry is essential. We are and have always been about “connections”–helping all the segments of the industry connect with each other. We always keep in mind that we are writing for a cross-section of advertising and entertainment industry segments and titles. We don’t worry about what other media are doing; we listen to what our readers need and want, and always look ahead. We ignore what other media have said about us over the years when selling against us. We count on advertising to support our business so we sell on our merits, don’t put others down and never compromise our editorial integrity for it. Ever. Everything we do and will continue to do is dedicated to helping advertising and entertainment industry creatives, producers, executives and artisans continue to connect with each other.
Thank you to our readers, our advertisers and our event sponsors for your continued support. A special Thank You to all the companies who advertised in our 50th Anniversary Issue; you helped to make it very special and we were very touched by your kind words! We hope to see many of you at our 50th Anniversary Party on December 16th in Hollywood.
We wish you continued success in your careers, and health and happiness. Thank you for sharing our 50th Anniversary with us–it is just as much yours as it is ours. We look forward to many more great times ahead with you!
L.A. Location Lensing Declines In 2024 Despite Uptick In 4th Quarter
FilmLA, partner film office for the City and County of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions, has issued an update regarding regional filming activity. Overall production in Greater Los Angeles increased 6.2 percent from October through December 2024 to 5,860 Shoot Days (SD) according to FilmLA’s latest report. Most production types tracked by FilmLA achieved gains in the fourth quarter, except for reality TV, which instead logged its ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline.
The lift across all remaining categories came too late to rescue 2024 from the combined effects of runaway production, industry contraction and slower-than-hoped-for post- strike recovery. With just 23,480 SD filmed on-location in L.A. in 2024, overall annual production finished the year 5.6 percent below the prior year. That made 2024 the second least productive year observed by FilmLA; only 2020, disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, saw lower levels of filming in area communities.
The continuing decline of reality TV production in Los Angeles was among the most disappointing developments of 2024. Down 45.7 percent for the fourth quarter (to 774 SD), the category also finished the year down 45.9 percent (to 3,905 SD), which placed
it 43.1 percent below its five-year category average.
The two brightest spots in FilmLA’s latest report appeared in the feature film and television drama categories. Feature film production increased 82.4 percent in the fourth quarter to 589 SD, a gain analysts attribute to independent film activity. The
California Film & Television Tax Credit Program also played a part, driving 19.2 percent of quarterly category activity. Overall, annual Feature production was up 18.8 percent in 2024, though the... Read More