How to Get Featured in Variety Australia
Variety Australia is a licensed Australian edition of Variety, covering the screen industry here. It carries a famous American name and is run by people making editorial decisions locally, and confusing the two is the most common mistake in this market.
What Variety Australia actually is
Variety is a trade publication. It exists for people who work in film and television rather than for general readers, and the Australian edition serves the local screen sector on the same terms.
That means production news, commissioning, distribution, deals, festivals, funding, talent moves and the business of getting things made. It is written for producers, distributors, executives and agents, and it reads like it.
How it differs from Variety US
Being covered by Variety Australia is not being covered by Variety in the United States. The editions are editorially separate, with their own staff and their own priorities.
A story can travel between them, but only if someone on the other side decides it should. Treat that as an occasional bonus rather than a plan, and be careful with anyone who implies the two are interchangeable.
When you describe the coverage afterwards, name the edition. People in this industry recognise the difference immediately, and overstating a placement costs more credibility than the placement earned.
Who gets covered
Production companies, streamers and broadcasters, distributors, festivals, funding bodies, and the writers, directors and performers attached to work that is actually happening.
The test is whether the story affects the industry. A film going into production affects it. A casting announcement on a project with financing behind it affects it. A concept with no money attached does not, however good the concept is.
Screen technology and services businesses sit at the edge of this. A post-production house, a studio build or a piece of production software can be trade news when it changes how work gets made here. The same company pitching a general business story will not be.
The routes in
- Trade news. Announcements with substance: greenlights, acquisitions, deals, appointments, festival selections. This is most of what a trade publishes.
- Features and interviews. Editorially chosen, and usually tied to a release or a moment in the calendar.
- Sponsored and branded content. Paid, labelled, and common around festivals and awards season.
- Publicist or agency pitching. A unit publicist or agency takes the announcement to the right editor with the right materials at the right time.
Screen publicity runs on timing and on relationships with a small number of editors. Anyone promising guaranteed editorial coverage in a trade is not describing how trades work.
What makes a story they will run
Verifiable specifics. Who is attached, who is financing, who is distributing, when it shoots, where it premieres. Trade editors publish facts they can confirm with a second party.
Vagueness kills these pitches faster than anything else. "In development" with no names attached is not news. A signed director, a confirmed broadcaster and a shoot date are.
Exclusivity carries real weight here too. Trades compete on being first, so a genuine exclusive offered honestly to one editor is often the difference between coverage and silence. Offering the same exclusive to several outlets is a mistake you make once.
What we do
Digital Networking Agency builds and places stories for founders and businesses, and we will say plainly when a screen trade is not our lane. If your work sits inside the Australian screen industry, a specialist entertainment publicist with existing trade relationships will often serve you better than a generalist agency, including us.
Where we do help is everything around the trade coverage: the business story, the founder profile, and the press record that makes you legible outside the industry.
Frequently asked questions
Is Variety Australia the same as Variety?
No. It is a licensed Australian edition with its own editorial team covering the local screen industry, and coverage there should be described as Variety Australia coverage.
Can a business be covered if it is not in film or television?
Rarely, and only where it genuinely touches the screen sector: investment, technology used in production, a studio facility. Otherwise it is the wrong publication for you.
Do I need a publicist?
For trade coverage it helps considerably. Trades run on trusted sources, confirmed detail and timing, which is exactly what an experienced screen publicist provides.