Penske buys Deadline Hollywood Daily

The playboy scion of one of America's richest auto families, Jay Penske, has taken a serious step into the internet news business and bought the increasingly influential site, Deadline Hollywood Daily, run until now almost single-handedly by blogger Nikki Finke.

Under the $15m deal, Finke will not only get a seven-figure salary, but will retain editorial control and be able to hire extra staff to help break more stories. The site already has a reputation for reporting news the Hollywood studios would prefer to keep secret, and as a result has become a must read for studio execs.

Finke told the Financial Times that the deal with Penske would help her "take it to the next level". It will also give the traditional film industry papers Variety and the Hollywood Reporter pause for thought: both are reckoned to be struggling in the digital era.

Thirty-year-old Penske is the son of Roger Penske, who controls an auto empire which includes the Penske racing team and the Penske truck and leasing company.

Until recently, Penske Jnr - described by Gawker as 'The Hard-Partying Si Newhouse Wannabe of Bel Air' - has been better known to readers of the gossip columns than the business pages. Previous girlfriends include the actresses Lara Flynn Boyle and Gina Gershon and the Japanese-American model Devon Aoki (pictured with him above).

But his Mail Media Corporation (MMC), with a board that includes Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, has ambitious plans. "Unlike other portals that are all about aggregation, we're looking to build through unique content," Penske told the Los Angeles Times. More acquisitions can be expected.