Variety act

Publisher Reed Elsevier has announced it is to flog its business magazine division, which includes American entertainment industry magazine Variety, because it wants to reduce its "exposure to advertising markets and cyclicality" and focus on its core business of "subscription-based information and workflow solutions". Monkey has no idea what all that means, but does know that if you type Variety magazine into Google, the first commercial link you get is for the rag's arch rival Screen International, with the caption "get a Variety of film news and analysis for industry professionals". Monkey thinks the magazine's new bosses might want to have a look at that before they even think of worrying about "workflow solutions".