Hollywood columnist-blogger Anne Thompson says that hiring Mike Fleming away from Variety is a smart move for Deadline|Hollywood. If he can co-exist with Nikki Finke, that is. Thompson:

Over two decades Fleming has built a network of sources who go to him with scoops because they trust him to take care of them. He is the exact opposite of DH’s Nikki Finke, who uses scare tactics and bullying as well as good old-fashioned power-mongering to get her stories....

But this is a terrible deadly blow to Variety, which relies on Fleming’s scoops, and needs premium content to lure people to pay its steep $248 annual subscription fee (and puts people off by demanding laborious access codes). I hear Variety was stunned by Fleming’s news, which can be read as a vote of no-confidence in the paper.

Thompson is a former Variety editor.

Previously at LA Observed:
Finke takes a couple more reporters