Reed Business Information Establishes Variety 100th Anniversary Fellow

NEW YORK, May 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- To celebrate Variety's 100th anniversary and recognize its Vice President and Editor-in-Chief Peter Bart for his many contributions, Reed Business Information (RBI) has established an enduring fellowship. Called the Variety 100th Anniversary Fellowship in Honor of Peter Bart, this annual fellowship will support the ambitions of four young students who are pursuing entertainment careers at Bart's alma mater, Swarthmore College of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, which is launching a media studies department.

In late 1987, Reed Business Information (then Cahners Publishing) acquired Variety, and the company struggled with the newspaper until the spring of 1989, when it hired a former film producer, studio executive, reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and reporter for The New York Times named Peter Bart as its Editor-in-Chief.

After joining New York-based Variety, Bart promptly remade the editorial staff, raised editorial standards and consolidated the warring Los Angeles and New York factions. He also decreed that the paper would never lose its sense of humor or the familiar "slanguage" that so clearly punctuated its editorial voice.

Sixteen years later, Variety, Daily Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, Variety.com, and VLife form a multimillion-dollar global enterprise with a famous brand and unrivaled stature in the marketplace. These publications and Websites have grown to be undisputed "must reads" for the world's most powerful media and entertainment moguls. Moreover, Variety returns nearly as much each year in profit as the amount that Cahners paid to acquire the newspaper.

While the rise of Variety was very much a team effort -- with tremendous contributions from Variety Group President Charlie Koones, former Variety Publisher Gerry Byrne, and hundreds of staff members who have served Variety so well over the years -- it is hard to imagine the many successes the company has enjoyed without the editorial leadership and contributions of Peter Bart.

"No publisher could wish for a better editor than Peter Bart," states Variety Group President Charlie Koones. "His news sense, credibility and vision have made the last decade of Variety's century its period of most impressive growth. We're proud that this recognition is in his name and at his alma mater."

"Variety and Peter are doing a fabulous job and I can't wait to see what they come up with in the second century!" remarks Tad Smith, RBI's EVP and President of its Media Division, the division into which Variety reports.

About Reed Business Information

Reed Business Information (http://www.reedbusiness.com/us), the largest business-to-business publisher in the U.S., offers business professionals in the media, manufacturing, electronics, construction and retail industries more than 100 market-leading business-to-business publications, 75 Webzines and Web portals, custom publishing, directories, research and direct-marketing lists. RBI is a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc --

a world-leading publisher and information provider operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business industry sectors.