UK Journalist Tim Adler to Edit Deadline|London

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC)'s Jay Penske and Deadline.com's Nikki Finke today announced the hiring of Tim Adler, a veteran UK entertainment business journalist, as the editor of the new Deadline/London which will go live later this month at Deadline.com. Previously, Adler was the editor of Screen Finance, the biweekly trade magazine covering film and television funding launched by the Financial Times Group in 1988 and then purchased by Informa in 2000. His distinguished background also includes authoring two non-fiction books about the film industry, and giving evidence to the most recent Parliamentary investigation into the British film industry. He was recently recalled to testify before the House of Lords' communications committee.

With Adler's hiring Deadline.com enters its next phase of editorial and geographic expansion, with future plans including the hiring of a senior entertainment business journalist to launch Deadline/New York. Finke will remain the site's general manager, editor in chief, and founder of Deadline/Hollywood and Deadline.com, and Adler will assist her in making Deadline.com a "must-read" for influencers and leaders in the global business of entertainment and media. Adler will cover both the UK and Europe in the Deadline.com tradition of shattering the mold of traditional reporting and creating a new paradigm for delivering news, analysis, and opinion with New Media immediacy.

Adler will also help MMC continue its rapid growth as one of the most dynamic companies to watch in the digital media arena. MMC's global reach provides the perfect platform to scale the impact of Tim Adler's and Nikki Finke's singular editorial voices at Deadline/London and Deadline/Hollywood respectively, and to strengthen the company's position as an important player in the entertainment space. They embody MMC's mission: to provide original, authoritative, and conversational content on the web.

"Tim combines immense editorial talent with critical insights into the European business of media and entertainment," said Jay Penske, CEO and Founder of Deadline.com's parent company Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC). He continued, "I know that, in his new role, Tim will make a significant contribution to our growing business, and further accelerate Deadline.com's leadership position as we expand overseas."

Said Finke: "More than half of Hollywood's revenue now comes from what it calls 'overseas'. And this percentage is only going to increase over the next years. PriceWaterhouseCoopers predicts that the European film and television market will be worth $30.1 billion by 2013, which is two-thirds of the size of the U.S. and Canadian market. That's why the entertainment industry pays so much attention to what's going on internationally, and Deadline.com must, too."

She continued: "Years ago, I was a London correspondent for The Associated Press, so I've always had a soft spot for the UK. I wanted to ensure that Deadline./London was in excellent hands. Hiring Tim Adler was an easy decision because of his singular expertise and experience in breaking news in the entertainment industry. And I should mention he's also very funny with a great personality. Tim will ensure Deadline/London is informative and authoritative as well as conversational and lively."

Said Adler: "I'm thrilled that Nikki has picked me to run her Deadline/London bureau. It's an honor to be working alongside her and Deadline/Hollywood, which is a triumph of old-fashioned hard-nosed reporting in the digital age."

Starting in 1996, Adler became Deputy Editor of the influential biweekly trade magazine Screen Finance, covering film and television funding when it was then owned by the Financial Times Group. In 2000, Informa Telecoms & Media purchased all of the Financial Times Group's business-to-business publications, and appointed Adler as Editor of its New Media Markets trade. In 2001, Adler returned to Screen Finance as Editor where he remained until his resignation in mid-December to join Deadline.com.

Adler also has written about the entertainment business for the Financial Times, the Guardian and the Times Of London, among others. Adler was the only business journalist asked to give evidence at the most recent Parliamentary investigation into the British film industry. He was recently recalled to give evidence before the House of Lords' communications committee. He regularly comments for UK media on film and television, including BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, BBC World Service, and Sky News. Adler has written two non-fiction books about the movie industry and is working on a third. In 2007, Bloomsbury published his expose, Hollywood and The Mob, which was named one UK newspaper's "Book of the Week", and another's "Critic's Choice". In 2004, Methuen put out his first book, The Producers: Money, Movies and Who Really Calls the Shots. Adler is currently writing a biography of Oscar-winning film and theatre director Tony Richardson.

His hiring comes as Deadline.com's Deadline/Hollywood now has a larger readership than Variety and The Hollywood Reporter combined after just four years in existence. November 2009 comScore ratings data showed Deadline.com exceeded 1,111,000 unique visitors. That surpassed the combined number of total unique visitors on both Variety.com (515,000) and HollywoodReporter.com (336,000) and their print editions. (comScore is the web's leading analytics and traffic source.)

About Deadline.com

Deadline.com first began in March 2006 as Deadline Hollywood Daily, the 24/7 Internet version of Nikki Finke's long-running LA Weekly "Deadline Hollywood" print column. DHD is regularly included on lists of top entertainment websites. Her site was purchased by Mail.com (MMC) on June 23, 2009. Influential industry leaders and key decision-makers across many fields track Nikki Finke's site many times a day. Deadline/Hollywood postings regularly receive more reader comments than all of the entertainment industry news sites combined.

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 for New York Magazine. She joined LA Weekly as its Hollywood 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, New Media's 'Top 10 Entertainment Game Changers' by The Huffington Post, 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, HollywoodLife.com, OnCars.com, Deadline.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