Veteran journalist Nikki Finke, founder of the entertainment trade site Deadline and in her heyday an elbows-out columnist known for juicy industry scoops and gossip that skewered Hollywood’s rich and powerful, has died at age 68.
According to a family representative, Finke died Sunday morning in Boca Raton, Fla., after a prolonged illness.
Finke was revered and feared in the industry for exposing secrets, first through her L.A. Weekly column, Deadline Hollywood, which she eventually built into a website.
She founded Deadline Hollywood Daily in 2006 on a Friday and attracted attention by live-blogging the 78th Academy Awards that Sunday. The site was largely a one-woman operation until 2009, when Penske Media Corporation acquired the site and hired Finke as its editor in chief.
“I didn’t set out to be a disruptor,” Finke wrote in a 2016 column reflecting on Deadline’s 10th anniversary. “Or an internet journalist who created something out of nothing that put the Hollywood trades back on their heels, and today, under Penske Media ownership, is a website worth $100+ million. Or a woman with brass balls, f— you attitude and ruthless hustle, who told hard truths about the moguls and who accurately reported scoops first.
“I did recognize that showbiz coverage could change, because the digital platform leveled a playing field that had previously belonged to Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. Back then, the trades were slow to embrace the idea that trees no longer had to die for a media outlet to be influential.”
This story is developing and will be updated.
