Entertainment journalism just got a whole lot more interesting. In what’s shaping up to be a landmark year for media excellence, the 67th SoCal Journalism Awards has unleashed an absolute tsunami of nominations — and Variety is riding the biggest wave with a whopping 93 nods across 57 categories.
Remember when people kept declaring print media dead? Well, someone forgot to tell the Los Angeles Press Club. They’ve just broken their own records with over 2,500 submissions for this year’s awards. Not too shabby for an industry that’s supposedly on life support.
Variety’s dominance in the nominations isn’t just impressive — it’s downright jaw-dropping. We’re talking about everything from best website to six different contenders for Journalist of the Year. The publication’s been firing on all cylinders, churning out content that ranges from deep-dive investigations to razor-sharp commentary.
The Hollywood Reporter isn’t exactly sitting on the sidelines, mind you. With 58 nominations (including three journalist of the year finalists), THR’s showing proves there’s plenty of room for multiple heavyweights in the entertainment journalism arena. And let’s not overlook IndieWire’s achievement — 11 nominations marks their best performance yet, demonstrating that sometimes the scrappy contender can punch well above their weight class.
What’s particularly fascinating about this year’s crop of nominees is the storytelling depth. Take Gary Baum’s exposé for THR about poverty at Universal Studios — the kind of story that makes you look twice at those gleaming Hollywood facades. Or consider Tatiana Siegel’s piece for Variety diving into Apple’s massive gambles on films like “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Napoleon.” (Speaking of which, who’d have thought we’d be discussing $700 million production budgets with a straight face back in 2023?)
Modern journalism isn’t just about traditional reporting anymore — and these nominations get that. IndieWire’s social media team earned props for their “IndieWire 2024 Wrapped” posts, while various outlets got nods for their podcast content. It’s 2025, after all — adapt or die, right?
The critics haven’t lost their touch either. Veterans like Variety’s Peter Debruge and THR’s Daniel Fienberg continue to prove why thoughtful criticism matters. Fienberg’s piece on Bob Newhart wasn’t just a review — it was a love letter to comedy itself, reminding us why we care about entertainment in the first place.
From Taylor Swift’s seemingly endless domination of… well, everything, to the nitty-gritty of intimacy coordination on set (remember when that wasn’t even a job?), these nominations paint a vivid picture of an industry in constant flux. Yet somehow, the standard of reporting keeps getting higher.
The upcoming awards gala at the Millennium Biltmore on June 22 promises to be more than just another industry pat on the back. It’s a celebration of journalism that matters — work that helps us understand not just the entertainment industry, but ourselves and our culture.
Sure, media faces its challenges. What industry doesn’t? But looking at these nominations, it’s clear that entertainment journalism isn’t just surviving — it’s thriving. And that’s something worth writing about.
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