Nikki Finke, the fearsome entertainment columnist whose uncompromising style and sharp-tongued scoops helped grow Deadline, the trade site she founded in 2006, into one of Hollywood’s most essential news sources, died Sunday morning. Unsurprisingly, Deadline first reported the news, adding that Finke had been battling a prolonged, unspecified illness.
She was 68.
“At her best, Nikki Finke embodied the spirit of journalism, and was never afraid to tell the hard truths with an incisive style and an enigmatic spark,” said Jay Penske, the founder and chief executive of Penske Media Corp., which acquired Finke’s burgeoning site in 2009.
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“She was brash and true. It was never easy with Nikki, but she will always remain one of the most memorable people in my life.”
Finke excelled in some of the most cutthroat journalism shops in the world before heading to Los Angeles, covering Moscow for the Associated Press and Washington, D.C., for Newsweek. She first fixed her withering gaze on the inner workings of Tinseltown in 2002, beginning a column called “Deadline Hollywood” for L.A. Weekly.
After buying a domain name for “for 14 bucks and change,” the Long Island native gained notoriety with her shrewd exclusives, insider analysis, and annual “live-snarking” of the Academy Awards. Despite her immense popularity, to the point of inclusion on Forbes “World’s Most Powerful Women” list, the blogger was a legendary recluse—never meeting her sources in person and staying away from screenings.
When Penske’s company, then known as Mail.com Media Corp., acquired Deadline for a reported low seven-figure sum in 2009, Finke inked an agreement allowing her to remain the site’s editor in chief. But growing pains—including a shifting of house style away from her trademark acerbity as more writers were brought in—resulted in frequent clashes between management and the “most feared writer” in Hollywood, as the Los Angeles Times christened her in 2011.
Finke jumped ship in 2013 to found NikkiFinke.com a year later. When that shuttered, she moved on to create HollywoodDementia.com, a platform for short fiction about the business of show.
She remained tethered to Deadline, though, and published her final post on the site in 2016, around the time of the site’s 10th anniversary. “I didn’t set out to be a disruptor,” she reflected, with more than a hint of pride. “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,” Finke added, “a woman with brass balls, fuck-you attitude and ruthless hustle, who told hard truths about the moguls and who accurately reported scoops first.”
In 2006, MarketWatch quoted the mysterious columnist as saying she wanted to be buried alongside the silver screen greats at the Pierce Brothers cemetery in Westwood. “On my tombstone, it could say: ‘She told the truth about Hollywood,’” Finke told the outlet.
