Robert J. Dowling

During his 14-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, the entertainment industry's premier daily trade publication, Robert J. Dowling has emerged as one of the leading authorities and spokesmen on entertainment issues and trends worldwide, including last year's terrorist attacks and their effects on the industry.

Mr. Dowling's unique publishing background has spanned more than three decades of successful leadership and experience in publishing and entertainment, sports marketing, technology, international and other arenas. He has created and launched five profitable magazines, pioneered an advertising sales and publishing management program, produced conferences and seminars for marketing executives and developed a TV talk show.

When BPI Communications purchased The Hollywood Reporter in 1988 and placed Mr. Dowling at the helm, he began the process of transforming a small, family-owned publication into a prestigious international newspaper. Under Dowling's leadership, The Hollywood Reporter has achieved steady and profitable growth, dramatically expanded its coverage of a now-global $100 billion entertainment industry and vaulted to leadership as the number one entertainment daily, read by more than 140,000 industry professionals worldwide.

Mr. Dowling has created and executed a successful business plan to position The Hollywood Reporter as the definitive authority on the fast-changing entertainment industry landscape of the 21st century. He has proven adept at identifying emerging growth areas early, guiding the paper to unparalleled coverage of labor, convergence, new media, international and Hollywood-Washington political issues in addition to its core reporting on the movie, television, cable and video businesses.

He launched The Hollywood Reporter's Web site in 1996, the industry's first real-time, online delivery of entertainment news, pioneered the first regular entertainment coverage devoted to the convergence of traditional entertainment and new media, and started THR-East, an electronically distributed daily edition designed to bring East Coast readers breaking news stories hours before the competition.

Mr. Dowling has also built the paper's revitalization on a series of franchise special issues, including the groundbreaking "Women in Entertainment," "Next Generation" and "Film 500" issues for which the publication has gained a reputation as a cutting-edge industry innovator.

The recipient of several publishing honors over the years, Mr. Dowling became the first publisher ever to receive the Foundation of Motion Picture Pioneers' prestigious Pioneer of the Year award in 2000. He has also earned the respected American Business Media's Crain Award for his distinguished editorial career.

Mr. Dowling is Chairman of the Digital Coast Roundtable and sits on the boards of the Hollywood Radio & Television Society (HRTS) and Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission. He is a frequent guest speaker at universities on the major trends in the markets he covers. In 2000 Mr. Dowling was invited to Washington D.C. to brief members of the White House Cabinet on the entertainment industry for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He has taught a course at UCLA and lectured at USC and Loyola Marymount.