Peter Bart's controversial reign is ending at Variety

Although Variety has long been the entertainment industry's bible, a must-read of Hollywood, of late trade newspaper has been dethroned by bloggers and collapsing revenue. Now Peter Bart, its formidable editor in chief, has ended his 20-year reign as the publication looks to remake itself for the digital age. For the last six months, Daily Variety's circulation was 24,740, down from a 2001 peak of 35,716. In the first quarter, advertising pages, which were already down sharply from 2007, fell 37%. Like many newspapers, Variety has laid off reporters and editors in recent months, and current issues of the paper have been virtually ad-free.