When it was announced recently that Peter Bart, who has been editor-in-chief of the trade bible Variety for the past twenty years, has been kicked upstairs--his new position if "vice president and editorial director", from which office her will "report directly to [Reed Business CEO Tad] Smith, assisting him in furthering Variety's editorial mission in print and online and expanding the brand's position in new revenue streams"--all hell broke out on-line. One of those leading the charge was Nikki Finke at her Deadline Hollywood Daily blog, who summed up the changes at Variety this way: "Hollywood can now safely ignore Bart. [Editor Tim] Gray is the guy to suck up to there." Finke and other bloggers have been laughing in the face of the "official" story that Bart had long planned to give up control of the news division this year, and that Gray had long ago been out in place with plans to step in for him when he moved on.

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