Back in February, we noticed something taking place inside Hollywood media: Both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety were putting themselves on the block. While Variety, from LexisNexis owner Reed Elsevier, was making its intent to sell a public matter, THR owner Nielsen publicly denied it was shopping itself around. Finally, this week and many months later, Sharon Waxman heard the same news — and added one tidbit to the gossip: the New York Times is supposedly a potential buyer.

Except, according to everything we understand, the Times is as much a player in this deal as, say, Rodale. That is: They're a big name publisher that always looks at these type of deals, but almost certainly won't be interested in taking on another (troubled) print liability. There's also some wild rumor about that Valcon, the name given to the six private equity firms that own Nielsen, might be interested in picking up Variety, too, and having total control over film studio advertising budgets.