The Circuit

News yesterday that the independent news publication indieWIRE was acquired has actually been a lede that's been written and erased over iW's 12 year history. 

In fact, when Eugene Hernandez first told me about yet another company interested in buying iW, which I helped found those many years ago, I couldn't help but roll my eyes.  

All its life, iW has had a revolving door of suiters.  Deals were always close, and they always fell apart.  Despite the owners' (which included myself, to a very small extent) desire to sell under the right terms, indieWIRE seemed destined to be independent.  

The difficult truth about being independent is that it's mostly for the young.  Few filmmakers can make a complete career of it.  And yet sometimes the upside of "selling out" is - if you do it right - your buyer understands that independent ingredient that makes you valuable.  Chris Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Soderbergh can't be labeled as sell-outs (yet).

I'm thrilled the deal with Snag came through.  And while it's a little strange to watch Jello and Starburst ads in front of "Super Size Me" and "What Would Jesus Buy," the publication deserves the stability, as do the readers. 

Yet the most important item in the deal is one that the readership must hold to iW's new owners:  iW's continued editorial independence - a non-negotiable deal point which all the former owners fought to maintain for years.

So a toast to indieWIRE -- here's to that delicate balance of growth and change.  May you have a lot of it, and little of it.