Former Us Weekly chief to shake-up Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Us Weekly celebrity magazine editor Janice Min is joining showbusiness trade paper The Hollywood Reporter in a move to liven up its coverage of the entertainment industry and its most colorful players.

Min, who has also worked for In Style and People magazines, will take up her post as editorial director in June. Her appointment, announced on Wednesday, follows the hiring in April of Lori Burgess, former publisher of OK! magazine, as publisher of The Hollywood Reporter.

Min denied suggestions that the recent appointments signaled a shift to celebrity-oriented reporting at the 80 year-old publication.

"The Hollywood Reporter will remain an industry publication and a business publication," she told Reuters on Wednesday. Min was editor in chief of Us Weekly from 2003-2009 and doubled its weekly circulation.

Richard Beckman, whose privately-held company, e5 Global Media, bought The Hollywood Reporter last year, said he planned to invest in the business, expand its staff and cover showbusiness in an "exciting and vibrant way."

"I think it is amazing how the existing (Hollywood) press has made uninteresting an interesting business. How could you possibly take such colorful and interesting products and dull it down to a place where you wouldn't be able keep yourself awake while reading?," Beckman said in an interview.

Founded in 1930, the Hollywood Reporter was the first daily entertainment trade paper for the burgeoning film and TV industry in Los Angeles.

But it has struggled in recent years against rival Variety, and like many print publications, against a general decline in advertising amid the recession and competition from websites.

Min said she hoped to expand The Hollywood Reporter's staple fare of snippets about movie release dates, casting, and talent agency affiliations to broader issues about the industry and big deal-makers in film and television.

"It's like covering baseball and only giving you the statistics, or covering the financial markets and only giving the numbers when the markets close," she said of the current output.

Beckman said he intended "unequivocally, yes" to keep the daily print edition, but also planned to invest heavily in developing The Hollywood Reporter web site, and expects to increase its staff.

Details of his plans are expected in 4-6 weeks.

Beckman's e5 group also acquired the Hollywood Reporter's sister publications, Billboard, Adweek and Mediaweek last year.

Reuters has a entertainment news distribution partnership with The Hollywood Reporter.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)