Variety TV Veteran Cynthia Littleton Named Business Editor
By Claudia Eller
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Cynthia Littleton has been named Business Editor for Variety.
Based in New York, Littleton will steer ’s coverage of media and entertainment giants at the corporate level, as well as mergers and acquisitions and earnings. She also co-hosts Variety’s “Strictly Business” weekly podcast with co-Editor-in-Chief Andrew Wallenstein.
In addition to expanding her focus in business, Littleton will continue to serve as a key reporter and editor on Variety’s TV team, working closely with Daniel Holloway, Executive Editor of Television.
“There are simply no words to describe how deep my respect for Cynthia is and the tremendous work she produces for us day-in and day-out,” says Variety co-Editor-in-Chief Claudia Eller. “There is no one who knows the TV business better than she, and consequently no journalist is more revered for coverage of that industry than Cynthia.”
Littleton has authored many of Variety‘s high-impact TV stories, including one titled “Talent Agencies Face Conflicts of Interest as Parent Companies Storm Into Production Arena,” which was recently nominated for a national journalism award. Among her other outstanding works was a cover story on how two media CEOs, Comcast’s Brian Roberts and Disney’s Bob Iger , battled for the major assets of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox empire.
Over a six-month period this year, Littleton enlisted an extraordinary level of access and her strong relationships with producers and other industry insiders to chronicle the making of the final season of FX’s “The Americans,” one of TV’s most acclaimed drama series.
Littleton, who was named Entertainment Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club in 2014, has been with Variety for the past dozen years. She most recently served as Managing Editor of Television after relocating from Los Angeles to New York in 2013.
“There couldn’t be a better time to be covering the movers and shakers of media in a period of incredible disruption in the traditional entertainment industry,” Littleton said. “I’m grateful to Claudia Eller and Andrew Wallenstein for their steadfast support and for leading the charge to make Variety the go-to source for business news, analysis and conversation.”
Before joining Variety, Littleton spent seven years at the Hollywood Reporter, rising to Editor. Earlier in her career, she worked for UPI and Broadcasting & Cable, and she previously worked as a TV reporter for Variety from 1997-1999.
Littleton is the author of “TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet” (Syracuse University Press, 2013), a chronicle of the 2007-2008 WGA strike. She co-authored with Susanne Daniels “Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB Network and UPN” (HarperCollins, 2007) and co-edited with Nina Tassler the essay collection “What I Told My Daughter: Lessons From Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women” (Simon & Schuster, 2016).
