LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The New York Times has sold its motion picture and television database company Baseline to a privately held company, Project Hollywood, which is owned by two Boca Raton-based media and Internet entrepreneurs Laurie S. Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein.
The Los Angeles-based Baseline is a leading subscription-based database service that offers entertainment research and reporting access through Baseline Intelligence and Screenline. These companies serve the specialized information and research needs of financial institutions, content owners, producers and distributors. Initially launched in 1981 as an offline directory but have since gone digital in the face of competition from websites such as IMDB.com.
The Times acquired Baseline in August 2006 to the tune of $35 million from Silvers and Rubenstein and while the terms of the most recent sale were not officially disclosed, Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Silvers and Rubenstein repurchased baseline for a slim $5 million.
In addition to Project Hollywood, the husband and wife team of Silvers and Rubenstein are the founders of the SyFy Channel (originally the Sci-Fi Channel) and the website MovieTix.com. They also own a controlling interest in a number of Hollywood news sites including Spill.com, Hollywood.com and MovieTickets.com. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
