But Ms. Min, above, sparkling in a yellow jeweled shift dress by Miu Miu, had also just pulled off a coup. A swarm of A-list stars, that most finicky of Tinseltown species, had descended to walk the red carpet — her red carpet.
Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Naomi Watts, Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Sally Field and a bevy of other Oscar nominees had all shown up for the party, the latest in a string of Reporter-hosted events here.
“I think this turnout says it all,” Ms. Min said, flashing a smile in the direction of Jim Gianopulos, the big boss at 20th Century Fox, and Donna Langley, co-chairman of Universal Pictures. “The whole town is here.”
But where was Snoop Dogg, who had been hired to be the D.J.? “Going on any minute,” Ms. Min said brightly.
As recently as 2010, The Reporter would have had a hard time persuading its own etiolated staff to gather for a party, much less marquee stars. The trade newspaper, founded in 1930, was bleeding from layoffs, vanishing advertisers and ferociously competitive entertainment industry blogs. It had become what moviedom dreads most: a has-been.
Then Ms. Min, 43, arrived from New York, where she successfully ran Us Weekly, and set about transforming The Reporter from a dull daily trade publication into a glossy large-format magazine. With money from new private-equity owners, the Reporter went on a hiring spree and started to break news again. Ad sales rose by more than 50 percent, while Web traffic increased by more than 800 percent.
Some people here now refer to the revamped Reporter, with its social-scene pages and power-lunch tidbits mixed with exposés and frothy celebrity features, as the “new” Vanity Fair. That’s certainly a stretch when it comes to making money. But certain similarities between the two magazines are starting to be striking and not just because they tread similar editorial and advertising turf.
Ms. Min and The Reporter’s fiery publisher, Lynne Segall, also seem to be taking a page out of Vanity Fair’s party playbook. Hosting Hollywood parties, particularly around the Oscars, has long been a way for Vanity Fair to woo advertisers and polish its brand while simultaneously creating content for its pages. Its annual Oscar party will be held at the Sunset Tower next Sunday after the Academy Awards.
The Reporter has been aggressively raising its profile with a similar strategy. On Saturday, for instance, it will replace Variety as the longtime media sponsor of the Night Before Party, a fund-raiser that can draw more powerful Hollywood figures than the Oscar ceremony itself.
“There is also a whole social side to the entertainment industry that is not well reported on, or it at least it wasn’t until we started,” Ms. Min, sitting at her orchid-laden desk, said last week. She added that parties also help her newly hired editors, 10 of whom have relocated from New York, to cultivate entertainment industry sources. “The best publications create an atmosphere you want to inhabit,” she said.
Before Ms. Min arrived, The Hollywood Reporter held two events a year: one tied to its “next generation” issue — studio executives, writers, directors and agents on the rise — and a dull breakfast marking the publication of its list of the 100 most powerful women in entertainment. It also sponsored the Key Art Awards, given for achievement in movie marketing.
Last year, The Reporter sponsored or staged 13 events.
Various parties in Los Angeles have been tailored to stylists, managers and lawyers. Ms. Min teamed with Google on an event in Washington the night before the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The Reporter also was the host of an event in New York, attracting people like Katie Couric and Barbara Walters.
“We want to be looked at as The Hollywood Reporter setting the agenda for entertainment,” Ms. Segall said.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/fashion/the-hollywood-reporter-dusts-off-its-party-clothes.html?partner=rss&emc=rss