Ray Richmond, a longtime Hollywood Reporter reporter, devoted his weekly column to Merv Griffin, who died last week after a battle with prostate cancer, noting that the Hollywood legend was a homosexuall — an open secret in the industry.
Then, as film critic David Ehrenstein explains on the Huffington Post, all hell broke loose:
Merv’s people called the Reporter, making all manner of threats and the piece was yanked hours after it went up. It was also yanked from Ray’s Blog. Then Ray called me. He was fearful for his job. So I called Michelangelo Signorile’s SIRIUS OUT Q radio show to inform Mike of this development. He was just talking about Ray’s piece at the time. And in no time at all outraged listeners were deluging the Hollywood Reporter switchboard with demands that the piece be put back up. And in a few hours it was — with a statement of support for Ray to boot.
Full story is here.
An 
Budget season is on the horizon and — surprise — magazine executives are pouring their money into online. Like, for instance, Mansueto Ventures:
Keira Knightley, Pirates of the Caribbean star and frequent tabloid fodder, 
Less than a year after its most recent relaunch, Success magazine has folded for the third time in its more than 100-year history. VideoPlus, a Dallas-based marketing and communications company, announced today that it has acquired the rights to the magazine’s title, trademarks and logos:
As part of its continuing its efforts to educate the predominantly white magazine industry on diversity, the Magazine Publishers of America, has launched a series of profiles of magazine executives of color as a 
Noted: As part of its philanthropic efforts, Variety magazine has assembled a youth advisory board — chaired by NBC Entertainment president Ben Silverman — of more than 60 actors (including Dakota Fanning, Emma Roberts, Hilary and Haylie Duff) for the a non-profit initiative encouraging up and coming to become involved with humanitarian and philanthropic efforts. “This is Variety’s first-ever initiative to reach out to Hollywood’s next generation,” says Variety VP/associate publisher Brian Gott, noting the demographic “is also our reader.”
