Todd McCarthy, the longtime chief film critic at Variety who was summarily fired in March during a cost-cutting round, has landed at the Hollywood Reporter.
McCarthy joined IndieWire's network with an independent blog shortly after losing his job at Variety, and now jumps the free-spending Hollywood Reporter under new editorial director Janice Min.
His hire puts another prominent name on the masthead days before the Reporter ditches its daily print edition in favor of a weekly glossy.
McCarthy becomes the Reporter’s chief critic; current critic Kirk Honeycutt is to become the international film critic, though he’ll still review Hollywood films, according to the New York Times, which first reported the shakeup.
As for IndieWire, McCarthy's departure is the second piece of bad news in a short span after losing founder Eugene Hernandez late last month. Hernandez is moving on to become director of digital strategy at the Film Sociatey of Lincoln Center, the company that runs the New York Film Festival and the long-running Film Comment magazine.
"We were really glad to offer Todd an entrepreneurial home when he really needed one, but completely understand his desire to return to his roots with a publication like the Hollywood Reporter," said Rick Allen, CEO of IndieWire.
McCarthy will leave behind an independent blog within the IndieWire network, which also houses Anne Thompson's blog.
"I am happy for him," Thompson wrote. "He’s a great critic, but making the adjustment from 30 years of working with a Variety support system to the independence of a blog was tough for him."
