Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The New Hollywood

People ask me all the time "Change, the poker industry is dying-- why don't you go back to Hollywood?"

I usually give a clumsy answer about how feature development jobs have completely dried up, how many of my peers who lost their gigs during last year's writer's strike are still unemployed, and how online content is rapidly contributing to the decline in television viewership and box office revenue, making studios and production companies loathe to hire people like me to expensively develop new projects.

800 people got laid off at Warner Bros. last week. NBC Universal recently axed 10% of their workforce. Assistants at many top agencies have seen their health insurance disappear and their salaries reduced essentially to minimum wage. Even industry stalwarts, like Variety writer Anne Thompson have been given pink slips in recent days.

Sharon Waxman's piece Hey Hollywood, welcome to your future answers this question quite eloquently and in more detail than my weed-addled brain could manage. Waxman, at one time, was a senior columnist on the film industry for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times-- you know, before print journalism started dying along with the rest of the economy. I suggest you check it out.

1 comment:

StB said...

Actually one could argue that print journalism was dying before the economy but whats the point.