TheWrap

About TheWrap

TheWrap is an entertainment and media news website based in Los Angeles, California, covering the business of Hollywood film, television, and streaming. Founded by award-winning journalist Sharon Waxman and launched on January 26, 2009, it describes itself as the only independently owned Hollywood trade publication. The site publishes breaking news, investigative reporting, analysis, awards-season coverage, and opinion from its headquarters in West Los Angeles, with additional editorial staff in New York. It is owned by The Wrap News Inc. and operates the subscription service WrapPRO alongside a portfolio of live events.

Founding

TheWrap was launched in January 2009 by Sharon Waxman, who raised $500,000 in initial financing to build a news portal covering entertainment and media, according to CBS MarketWatch. A second round of financing closed in 2010. The launch came at a moment of upheaval in entertainment journalism, as print trades were contracting and digital outlets were racing to cover an industry being reshaped by the financial crisis and the early streaming era. Waxman positioned the site as a venue for serious, in-depth business coverage of Hollywood — breaking news and analysis with the rigor of the newspapers where she had trained. By 2013 the operation had grown to about 30 employees.

Sharon Waxman's background

Before founding TheWrap, Waxman was a Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times and The Washington Post, credentials that gave the startup immediate credibility with industry sources. She is also an author: her 2008 book Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World examined the global trade in antiquities and the efforts of source countries to reclaim artifacts held in Western museums. Waxman remains editor-in-chief of TheWrap and writes the WaxWord blog. Her journalism has been recognized with honors including Best Online Journalist at the Los Angeles Press Club's SoCal Journalism Awards in 2021, and Inc. magazine named her one of the Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs in 2020.

Independence

Independence is central to TheWrap's identity. Unlike its trade-press competitors — Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, both owned by Penske Media Corporation, and Deadline, also a Penske property — TheWrap is owned by its founder through The Wrap News Inc. The company presents that independence as an editorial advantage, arguing that it can cover the industry's power players without answering to a corporate parent with its own Hollywood interests. The pitch has resonated with readers and advertisers looking for an alternative to the Penske-owned trades, and it has shaped the site's scrappy, outsider voice.

Coverage and editorial voice

TheWrap's coverage concentrates on the business of entertainment: studio and network strategy, mergers and executive moves, box office, streaming economics, labor issues, and awards season. The site publishes original reporting alongside analysis and opinion, with particular depth in film and television coverage. Its editorial leadership has included co-executive editors Adam Chitwood and Jethro Nededog, with film editor Kristen Lopez and TV editor Jose Alejandro Bastidas leading those desks as of 2023. The site's tone is insider and conversational — written for people who work in the industry but accessible to engaged outsiders — and its reporting frequently drives the day's Hollywood conversation.

Awards season is one of the site's signature beats. TheWrap publishes exhaustive coverage of the Oscars, Emmys, and guild awards, from predictions and contenders' lists to interviews with nominees and analysis of voting dynamics. That coverage feeds both the free site and the company's premium print magazines and screening events, making awards season a year-round commercial engine as well as an editorial franchise. The site's Los Angeles base — in West Los Angeles, with a New York editorial presence — keeps it close to the studios, agencies, and guilds that drive the calendar.

WrapPRO

TheWrap operates WrapPRO, a subscription service offering in-depth reporting and analysis for executives and industry insiders. The product reflects a broader industry shift toward reader revenue: as digital advertising became less reliable, trade publications moved to monetize their most engaged professional audiences directly. WrapPRO sits alongside the site's free coverage and its premium print magazines, which are distributed to entertainment industry professionals with original photography and extensive coverage of the year's most prestigious films and television shows, particularly during awards season.

Events: TheGrill and the Power Women Summit

Live events are a major part of TheWrap's business and brand. TheGrill is an annual executive leadership conference devoted to the forces transforming the entertainment industry, convening leaders from media, entertainment, and technology. The Power Women Summit, organized through WrapWomen — a network Waxman created to promote women's leadership in media and entertainment — is billed as the largest annual event for women and underrepresented groups in entertainment; its 2021 virtual edition drew one million streams over three days. The site also runs an awards-season screening series featuring cast and filmmaker Q&As, embedding the brand in the industry's annual rituals.

Awards and recognition

TheWrap has won multiple journalism awards for investigative reporting, columns, criticism, and feature writing. It was named best online news website at the Los Angeles Press Club's SoCal Journalism Awards in 2018, 2012, and 2009, and best entertainment website at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards in 2018. In 2019 the site won two National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards for the multimedia package "#AfterMeToo: 12 Accusers Share What Happened Next," examining what happened to women who accused powerful men of misconduct. In 2021 the SoCal Journalism Awards gave the site top prizes for feature photography and for its weekly podcast, "TheWrap-Up."

Competition

TheWrap competes directly with Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter for scoops and industry readership. As early as 2014, its most direct competition was identified as Deadline.com, the Nikki Finke-founded site known for its aggressive breaking-news style. TheWrap has differentiated itself through investigative and enterprise reporting — including its #AfterMeToo coverage — and through its positioning as the independent alternative to the Penske-owned trades. A 2014 New York Times profile of the Hollywood news wars noted TheWrap's rebound after a difficult stretch, a sign of how competitive and volatile the trade-press market has been.

Editorial expansion

TheWrap has continued to invest in its newsroom. In November 2015 it expanded editorial and digital operations with hires including Tim Molloy as deputy managing editor and a dedicated business and technology editor to cover digital media. In February 2025 it announced further senior appointments, including Tom Lowry as senior vice president of editorial strategy to develop business and technology coverage and launch subscription products, Graham Starr as business editor overseeing business and PRO coverage, and Brian Lowry's transition to media editor covering media and politics. The steady hiring reflects the company's bet that original reporting remains its core product.

The outlet has also built a podcast and video presence around its brand, including the weekly "TheWrap-Up" podcast, which won top honors at the 2021 SoCal Journalism Awards, and the "Visionaries" video series, whose creator Jennifer Laski was appointed the company's director of photography and video in 2025. Together with its events and subscription products, the multimedia operation shows how a mid-size independent publisher has diversified beyond the display-advertising model that sustained the first generation of digital news sites.

Official website

TheWrap publishes at thewrap.com, where readers can find breaking entertainment business news, awards coverage, and information about WrapPRO subscriptions and the company's events.