The Hollywood Reporter's TV Editor Nellie Andreeva Moves to Deadline.com

LOS ANGELES, March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Deadline.com is now covering the television industry full-time. Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC)'s Jay Penske and Deadline.com's Nikki Finke today announced the hiring of Nellie Andreeva, The Hollywood Reporter TV Editor who is one of the beat's most preeminent and prolific journalists. In the next two weeks, Andreeva will become the TV Editor of Deadline.com, and will lead TV coverage for all Deadline.com verticals. Andreeva plans to continue delivering high-profile scoops and on-the-spot analysis about the small screen's new programs, pilot development, cast changes, business deals and industry trends that will further make Deadline.com the "must read" for influencers and leaders in global entertainment and media.

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With the hiring of top journalism talents Mike Fleming to run Deadline|NewYork, and Tim Adler to run Deadline|London, and now Nellie Andreeva to run TV coverage, Deadline.com completes its second phase of editorial expansion. Andreeva will report to Finke, who remains Deadline.com's general manager and editor in chief, and editor and founder of Deadline|Hollywood. All the staff are committed to Deadline.com's tradition of shattering the mold of traditional reporting and creating a new paradigm for delivering original content with New Media immediacy. Hiring The Hollywood Reporter's marquee TV journalist demonstrates MMC's commitment to rapid growth as one of the most dynamic companies in digital media.

"We are excited and honored that Nellie has joined our talented team at Deadline.com--and with this significant hire, we further accelerate our mission to become the finest source on the business of entertainment and media," commented Jay Penske, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of MMC.

Said Finke: "We wanted Deadline to provide full-time coverage of the TV industry but first needed to find the right TV beat journalist to do it. Lots of reporters cover the small screen's consumer news, but few get in-depth and behind-the-scenes of the networks and studios and talents. After our search started, TV insiders quickly made it clear that the first choice had to be one of my fiercest competitors, Nellie Andreeva, who daily dominates The Hollywood Reporter's front page with her scoops. We didn't know each other personally, so when I first made contact with her by email, Nellie thought someone was playing a prank on her! I'm now her biggest admirer because she is tough and talented, my favorite combination in a journalist."

Said Andreeva: "Ten years ago, The Hollywood Reporter took a chance on me, a reporter from Bulgaria with zero Hollywood connections. For the last decade, it gave me the best editors, mentors and friends I could've asked for. I probably would've never left if it weren't for a big new opportunity."

Los Angeles-based Nellie Andreeva has been the TV Editor for The Hollywood Reporter online and print edition since June 2004 and has moderated panels and conducted Q&As at NATPE and the Paley Center for Media. She joined the daily trade paper in 2000 as a TV reporter. Before that, she worked as a reporter at Investor's Business Daily where she tracked both television and radio, and interned as a science news reporter for Business Week magazine after receiving a fellowship through the American Association for the Advancement in Science while a master's degree candidate in the Department of Physics at the University of Maine. But her interest in the television industry extends back to her homeland of Bulgaria where she became a journalist and then spent six years as a producer, writer, and director for Bulgarian National Television. Her work helming a popular skit comedy show akin to Saturday Night Live earned her two awards, including the Bulgarian equivalent of an Emmy. Andreeva has masters degrees in journalism and physics from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria.

About Deadline.com

Deadline.com first began in March 2006 as Deadline Hollywood Daily, the Internet version of Nikki Finke's long-running LA Weekly "Deadline Hollywood" print column. Deadline|Hollywood is regularly included on lists of top entertainment websites. Her site was purchased by Jay Penske and MMC in 2009, and was rebranded Deadline.com. Influential industry leaders and key decision-makers across many fields track Deadline.com and its Hollywood and New York verticals many times a day. Deadline.com stories and news regularly receive more reader comments than all of the entertainment industry news sites combined.

About Nikki Finke

Nikki Finke's journalism career has included years as an AP foreign correspondent in Moscow and London, Newsweek correspondent in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Times staff writer covering entertainment and features. From 1995 through 2000, she was West Coast Editor and Hollywood columnist first for the New York Observer and then New York Magazine. She joined LA Weekly as its Hollywood business columnist in 2002. Her many reporting honors include Entertainment Journalist Of The Year in the National Entertainment Journalism Awards, one of "100 Leaders You Can Learn From On Twitter" in the journalists category, one of New Media's 'Top 10 Entertainment Game Changers' by The Huffington Post, and one of Time Magazine's "Time 100" finalists. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and Esquire.

About Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC)

MMC is a leading digital media company founded by CEO Jay Penske in 2004. The company owns and operates Mail.com, a global multi-media publishing platform. In addition, MMC owns a unique portfolio of lifestyle brands that provide the web's best original content in categories including entertainment, automotive, breaking news, media, finance, health, beauty, style and sports. Mail.com, Deadline.com, HollywoodLife.com, OnCars.com, Movieline.com, Fan.com, are all part of the MMC digital portfolio.

For more information about MMC, please visit http://corp.mail.com

SOURCE Mail.com Media Corporation