Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Variety Japan no more?

by Chris MaGee

This isn't good. First Variety Asia Online was shut down this past February, taking Grady Hendrix's much loved Kaiju Shakedown blog with it, and now there's news of another casualty at in the Variety family that will directly impact on fans of Japanese cinema. According to an announcement posted yesterday on its main page Variety Japan has officially suspended publication. The only reason given is that Variety has been " improving management efficiency", which in layman's terms can I guess be translated to downsizing.

Variety Japan has been an online staple for Japanese film fans and insiders since it was first launched in 2007 and they will be terribly missed. As more details come out as to the reasons behind this shut down we'll definitely make sure to share them here.

1 comment:

Nicholas Rucka said...

Too bad, I suppose, but not surprising really.

For what it's worth, here's what I wrote back in '07 when I learned of their launch:

http://mab-pro.blogspot.com/2007/11/stop-presses-theres-variety-japan-now.html