- World Entertainment News Network
World Entertainment News Network (WENN) is a global network, headquartered in London with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas and other key entertainment cities around the world.It provides entertainment news, photos and features to newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television networks, websites and telecom companies worldwide.
History
WENN was launched as an entertainment news wire service in London in 1989 by journalist
Jonathan Ashby . WENN started life as theWorld Rock News Network (WRNN) and the company soon established a niche for itself, providing music news to a prestigious list of subscribers includingMTV ,BBC , ABCdn and - a first for any Western news service - Russia's leading national daily youth newspaper,Komsomolskaya Pravda . In 1991 it became apparent there was a developing appetite from the world's media for celebrity news and photos and WRNN reacted by embracing this developing cult of celebrity.The company name was changed to WENN - the
World Entertainment News Network - to more accurately reflect its enhanced editorial brief.1993 saw another significant development with the opening of the WENN picture desk set up to cover the worlds of movies, music, and show business.
In 1994 a Los Angeles bureau was opened in the heart of bustling Melrose Avenue to cover the fast moving Hollywood celebrity scene.
Since then the company has grown steadily. As well as numerous subscribers who are household names such as
Sony ,Blockbuster andITV , WENN's news and photos can now be seen via a significant number of new media and telecoms companies such as O2,Virgin Mobile ,imdb.com andBloomberg .Again, reacting to industry demands, in the late 90's WENN invested further in its picture division and now boasts a global network of photographers.
In 2000
Lloyd Beiny became WENN's CEO and 2002 saw a new sales and editorial office opened in Germany.In 2005 WENN's presence in the US expanded by the addition of a New York sales office and in February WENN's expansion in the US continued with the launch of a Las Vegas editorial & photo bureaux.
Former employees
WENN has been a launch-pad for a host of household names, including
Amy Winehouse andDJ Yoda , who worked as a music reporters.Other noteworthy former employees includeSunday Mirror Showbiz EditorSean Hamilton ,Daily Star Sunday ColumnistJoe Mott ,Daily Star showbiz columnistCharli Morgan ,Sunday Mirror showbiz columnistZoe Griffin andBBC America DJ and writerZoe Street-Howe .External links
http://www.wenn.com/
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