Variety Earns 100 SoCal Journalism Nominations

Variety landed 100 nominations in the 2025 SoCal Journalism Awards, a sweeping show of strength that puts the entertainment outlet at the center of this year’s competition.

The nominations come from the Los Angeles Press Club’s annual awards, a closely watched benchmark for journalism across Southern California. According to the announcement, four Variety journalists also reached the finalist stage for Journalist of the Year, underscoring not just volume but range. Daniel D'Addario earned a nod in print for outlets over 50,000 circulation, while Brian Steinberg was recognized in the online category. Brent Lang and Chris Willman were also named finalists, reports indicate.

A triple-digit nomination count and four Journalist of the Year finalists give Variety one of its strongest awards-season showings in recent memory.

The scale of the nomination haul matters because these awards do more than honor individual stories. They reflect how a newsroom performs across formats, beats and deadlines over a full year. In Variety’s case, the signal points to sustained impact in entertainment journalism, where competition remains intense and audience attention shifts fast.

The Journalist of the Year finalists sharpen that picture. Those honors typically spotlight consistent reporting, strong writing and subject-matter authority rather than a single standout piece. For a publication built around the entertainment business, multiple finalists suggest a newsroom that continues to shape coverage of film, television and the industry around them.

The next step will come when the Los Angeles Press Club announces winners, and that outcome will show whether nomination strength converts into trophies. Either way, the results already mark a strong moment for Variety and for entertainment reporting more broadly, signaling that ambitious, beat-driven journalism still carries weight in a crowded media field.