Bob Dowling is useless. The previous writer of the Hollywood Reporter was 83 years outdated

Robert Joseph “Bob” Dowling, Writer and Editor-in-Chief The Hollywood Reporter For 17 years, who helped lead leisure enterprise journalism into the digital age, died Dec. 30 in Santa Monica after a short sickness. He was 83 years outdated.

Dowling started his profession in journal publishing in his 20s, turning into editor and writer of varied publications together with American Druggist, Hello-Tech Advertising and marketing, Menswear and Sports activities Advertising and marketing Information. He joined The Hollywood Reporter in 1988 as president earlier than being named writer and editor-in-chief. He moved his household from Westport, Conn. Los Angeles to take the place regardless of having no expertise in leisure or any understanding of how the enterprise labored.

Pushed by power and humility, Dowling held greater than 300 conferences with executives within the movie, tv, music and reside leisure industries in his first yr on the job, educating himself on every business from the within. A sequence of improvements, particular editions and occasions underneath Dowling’s management, together with a serious improve in worldwide protection, have positioned the Reporter in shut competitors. Selection with the publication all through its life.

Dowling additionally pushed for the primary on-line presence for any Hollywood commerce publication in 1995 with the launch of THR.com. Dowling additionally oversaw the 2001 publication of a particular problem on September 12 following the September 11 assaults, when editors launched a 16-page newspaper with out promoting within the warmth of the following nationwide chaos and aftermath.

1939 Born on Sept. 16 in Lengthy Island, Dowling was deserted by her mom and spent her first three years in a sequence of foster houses earlier than lastly being adopted. Dowling met his spouse, Juanita Wealthy, in 1965, and collectively they raised three sons.

Dowling was well liked by the THR employees throughout her tenure. He renewed and expanded the editorial work, including reporters and pushing the paper to ship extra severe journalism. He additionally presided over THR’s profitable seventy fifth anniversary celebration in 2005. He left the publication later that yr as THR’s mother or father firm modified palms as soon as once more.

Dowling’s low profile at THR got here in 2001, when the paper’s longtime gossip columnist George Christie discovered himself embroiled in scandal and a Display screen Actors Guild investigation. The difficulty stemmed from allegations that Christie used her business connections to persuade producers to present her small roles in movies, scenes that always did not pan out, to get SAG well being protection. There have been different unflattering revelations about how Christie operated behind the scenes that ultimately led to his ouster and the tip of his “Huge Life” column, which ran twice per week on the within web page when THR was nonetheless a Monday-Friday run. day by day publication. Christie died in 2020 on the age of 93.

Dowling took over the helm of THR in 1988 from Tichie Wilkerson, the widow of THR founder William “Billy” Wilkerson. Tichie Wilkerson organized the sale of THR to then-Billboard proprietor BPI Communications, which recruited Dowling for the position of writer and EIC.

Dowling has had THR’s page-one TradeViews column on and off throughout his tenure. He additionally created THR’s Key Artwork Awards franchise, which honored the movement image advertising marketing campaign, to change into a landmark annual awards present. He shrewdly recruited advertising executives from each main studio to take a seat on the board that administered the awards, which have been among the many first to give attention to the position of selling and promoting in a movie’s success.

Currently, Dowling has been working his personal Bob Dowling A gaggle shingle that produced a sequence of business conferences that mirrored his long-standing curiosity within the intersection of expertise and leisure.

Dowling is survived by his spouse of greater than 50 years, sons Rob, Michael and Matthew, and 7 grandchildren PJ, Larissa, Lena, Devan, Ella, Miles and Radley.

(Cynthia Littleton contributed to this report.)