Nikki Finke, pioneering entertainment journalist, and founder of Deadline, who was both respected and feared in Hollywood during the early days digital media, has passed away. She was 68.
According to her family, Finke died Sunday morning in Boca Raton, Florida, after a long battle with cancer.
Finke created Deadline as a blog, in 2006, and wrote juicy insider scoops that put The Hollywood Reporter (print trade) on their heels.
She was an icon in her day, with scoops that were frequently proclaimed. “Toldja!” when something she’d reported turned out to be true. She would privately claim she was right when things didn’t come true, even though she had predicted them.
Finke was not only required to read in Hollywood, but she was also feared and loathed by many. She was known for trading information and threats with sources to obtain more harmful information.
She told Marketwatch in 2006: “I write mean — end of story. I’m unapologetic about it – end of story. I watch out for the shareholders — end of story.”
Her often personal-seeming grievances included Ben Silverman (the former chief of William Morris Agency Jim Wiatt), Marc Shmuger from Universal, and other Hollywood high-ranking players in the early aughts.
She rose to the height of her power during the Writers Strike of 2007, when she wrote on behalf of Hollywood’s writers who were being shut out by the studios. According to people who knew her, she used to fall asleep on her keyboard while keeping up with the news.
She made common cause with power player Ari Emanuel as he sought to merge his Endeavor agency – but actually take over – William Morris in 2009. Emanuel fought back with Finke as his ally and forced out Wiatt the long-standing chairman of William Morris.
Finke began her long career as a journalist at Wellesley College. She was editor-in-chief for the school’s newspaper. After graduating, she got a job in then New York congressman Ed Koch’s office. When she saw how he and his staff worked, she was inspired to become a journalist. “would genuflect to journalists.” She went on to cover his mayoral run as a reporter on AP’s foreign desk.
As the years progressed, Finke wrote for various publications, including The Dallas Morning News, Newsweek – where she was a correspondent in Washington and Los Angeles – and at the Los Angeles Times, where she covered entertainment and features. She was soon appointed west coast editor at The New York Observer, and later New York where she was the Hollywood columnist.
As her career evolved, Finke also wrote for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and The Washington Post, among others.
In 2002, Finke’s LA Weekly column Deadline Hollywood took off and, four years later she struck out on her own to found the Deadline blog as the internet overturned traditional journalism. The internet suited Finke’s style, who couldn’t resist breaking a story at all hours of the day. A blog freed her to write and report at will – without the oversight of an editor.
In 2009 Penske Media Corp. purchased DeadlineFor a reported $14 Million, she remained editor-in-chief while continuing her reporting and comment.
Finke’s scorched earth reporting and writing eventually got the best of her. Too many Hollywood actors complained about Finke, now that Finke had a boss. Penske protected Finke over the years until she left Deadline Hollywood.
She often promised her return and launched the company a year later. NikkiFinke.comThe site was not popular. The following year came HollywoodDementia.com, where she and other Hollywood insiders would supposedly write and share showbiz short fiction. This too was unsuccessful.
Due to her weight, she was a lifelong diabetic and became notoriously isolated as a result. She was a society debutante in her youth and suffered from diabetes throughout her adult life. Only a few photos of Finke exist from the past several decades. The current photo was taken for the book jacket on CAA, which was never published.
Sharon Waxman, founder of this site was considered to be a longtime rival. She considered her friend as having betrayed their friendship when she founded the site in 2009.
Finke is survived in death by Terry Finke Dreyfus her sister and brother-in law James and the nieces Sarah Greenhill, Diana Leighton and Diana Leighton.
