About Robert Dowling

Robert Dowling is the former Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, the entertainment industry’s premier daily trade publication.  He is also the former executive vice-president of VNU, the world’s largest network of entertainment-related publications and services, which includes Billboard, Musician, Music & Media, Adweek, Amusement Business, BackStage West, The Entertainment News Wire and Broadcast Data Systems.   He is widely recognized as the leading voice and authority on Hollywood’s real time business, deal-making, trends and financing in film, television, recording, video and cutting-edge technology here and abroad. Insiders and industry leaders alike consider Bob Dowling the most reliable, informed and knowledgeable executive in Hollywood. He has an enviable reputation for straight talk, providing accurate, cogent and unbiased reporting of the issues and activities in Hollywood, New York, Washington, D.C., and in film capitals around the world.  

When BPI Communications (now VNU Business Media) 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 highly respected international newspaper. Under Mr. 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, music, cable and video businesses.  

He launched The Hollywood Reporter’s Web site in 1995, 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. He has consistently gained high marks throughout his distinguished career not only as a journalist, editor and publisher, but as a highly popular, informative, entertaining and sought-after keynote speaker, guest lecturer, panel moderator and entertainment industry advocate.  

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.  Added to that, he has held a number of prestigious positions, including president, editor-in-chief and publisher at Technical Marketing Corporation, where he launched Hi-Tech Marketing and Sports Marketing News. He has also been involved in the publication of several other magazines, Menswear, Sportswear International and American Druggist. 

Throughout his career he has been active in the design and implementation of ad sales programs for technology media representatives, has produced conferences and expositions for marketing executives and developed a TV talk show for sports marketers. The recipient of many 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, the Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors’ Journalism Award, and most recently, the Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Entertainment Industry Award.  Mr. Dowling is Chairman of the Digital Coast Roundtable and sits on the boards of the Los Angeles Board of Governors for the Museum of Television & Radio, the Hollywood Radio & Television Society (HRTS), the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission, Hollywood Post Alliance and the Fielding Graduate Institute.  He has lectured at Columbia, Loyola, NYU and UCLA and has been a principal speaker and moderator at domestic and international markets and film festivals, including Cannes Film Festival, MIPCOM, Motion Picture and Television Academies, Museum of Television & Radio, Digital Coast Roundtable.  He has appeared at a number of Congressional hearings discussing the entertainment, broadcasting and communications industries, and also briefed members of the White House Cabinet on entertainment industry interest and support for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. 

Robert Dowling attended Villanova University, is married and has three children. Bob and his wife Juanita reside in Los Angeles, California.