Variety
The legendary entertainment trade publication covering every corner of the global entertainment business
Overview
Variety has been the entertainment industry's paper of record since 1905, covering film, television, music, theater, and digital media with authoritative reporting and analysis. Its coverage spans creative, business, and technological developments across the global entertainment landscape.
The publication features in-depth profiles of actors and filmmakers, awards season coverage, box office analysis, and investigative reporting on industry issues. Its annual power lists and special issues are widely referenced throughout the industry.
How It Works
For actors, Variety provides essential context about the business environment in which you work. Understanding studio strategies, streaming competition, and production trends helps you make informed career decisions and speak intelligently in meetings.
Many articles are free to read, but Variety offers a premium subscription at approximately $20 per month for unlimited access to paywalled content, special reports, and archives. The free tier provides enough content for most actors' needs.
Who Uses It
Variety is essential reading for anyone serious about understanding the entertainment business. Even the free articles provide valuable insight into the forces shaping the industry and the projects in your future audition pipeline. With over a century of continuous publication, Variety has built an unmatched archive of entertainment industry history and an editorial authority that no newer outlet can replicate. The publication's annual events, including the Power of Women luncheon, Hitmakers ceremony, and various honor events, have become important industry milestones that celebrate excellence across the entertainment landscape. For actors, Variety's depth of coverage provides the kind of business literacy that transforms you from a passive participant in your career into an informed professional who understands the economic forces driving casting decisions, project development, and industry evolution.
Pricing & Plans
Variety operates on a freemium model that balances accessibility with premium content. A significant portion of articles are available for free, including breaking news, some features, and general industry coverage. The premium subscription, Variety VIP, costs approximately $20 per month or $200 per year and unlocks full access to all paywalled content, special reports, data analysis, salary surveys, and the complete digital archive. For most actors, the free tier provides sufficient coverage of casting news, industry developments, and awards season analysis. The premium tier is most valuable for industry executives, producers, agents, and actors who also produce or who want deep access to business intelligence including production deal terms, executive compensation trends, and detailed streaming platform performance data. Variety also offers a student rate for those enrolled in film and entertainment programs.
Pros & Cons
What's Great
Variety's greatest strengths include its comprehensive global coverage that extends well beyond Hollywood to encompass international markets, music, theater, and digital media — providing a genuinely complete view of the entertainment landscape. The publication's annual power lists, including the Variety500, Power of Women, and New Leaders lists, identify the decision-makers and rising stars who shape the industry, which is invaluable intelligence for actors navigating relationships with executives, producers, and directors. Variety's investigative journalism has broken major industry stories including coverage of workplace harassment, labor disputes, and corporate governance issues that have reshaped industry practices. The publication's awards season coverage is among the most thorough available, with detailed analysis of campaigns, voting dynamics, and the strategic considerations behind nominations and wins. Variety's video content, including interviews and panel discussions filmed at industry events, provides free access to conversations with top professionals that would otherwise be available only to event attendees.
What Could Be Better
Variety's paywall can be frustrating for actors on limited budgets, as some of the most valuable content — including salary reports, deal analysis, and in-depth business features — requires a premium subscription that not every working actor can justify. The publication's coverage naturally gravitates toward high-profile projects, major studios, and established talent, which means emerging actors and smaller independent productions receive proportionally less coverage. As part of the Penske Media portfolio, Variety shares corporate ownership with Deadline, IndieWire, Rolling Stone, and other entertainment outlets, which some critics argue creates potential conflicts of interest and a narrowing of editorial perspectives across the entertainment media landscape. The site's advertising can be intrusive, with auto-playing video ads and pop-ups that detract from the reading experience, particularly on the free tier. Variety's print edition, while prestigious, has a limited circulation and most actors will engage primarily with the digital platform.
Our Recommendation
Every actor serious about their career should incorporate Variety into their regular media diet, using at minimum the free tier for daily industry news, casting announcements, and awards season coverage. The premium subscription is worth considering if you are also a producer, are in a position where business intelligence directly informs your decision-making, or simply want unrestricted access to one of the most authoritative entertainment news sources available. Pair Variety with Deadline for breaking news speed and The Hollywood Reporter for in-depth features and roundtable content to create a comprehensive trade media diet. If the premium subscription is beyond your budget, follow Variety's social media accounts and subscribe to its free email newsletters, which curate the most important stories and provide enough coverage for most actors' needs.
Pro Tips
Subscribe to Variety's daily email newsletter to receive a curated summary of the most important industry stories each morning — this is free and provides an efficient way to stay current without needing to browse the full site. Follow Variety's dedicated beat reporters on social media, as they frequently share commentary and context that enriches the formal coverage and provides informal industry intelligence. Use Variety's annual lists — Power of Women, Variety500, New Leaders — as networking research tools to identify the industry figures you should know about and the relationships that could advance your career. During awards season, Variety's prediction articles and campaign analysis help you understand the mechanics of how performances gain recognition, which is educational whether or not you are personally in contention. When preparing for meetings with executives, producers, or directors, search Variety's archive for recent coverage of the people and projects involved — demonstrating knowledge of their recent work and business context signals that you are a serious professional who does your homework.