Trade Papers Struggling In Hollywood.

LOS ANGELES -- Variety, the show business bible, was born nearly 105 years ago when young Sime Silverman, by his own account, was fired by The Morning Telegraph for a review in which he declared a new theatrical sketch by a performer who happened to be one of the paper's advertisers ''N. G. (No Good).'' Mr. Silverman started a paper of his own. Its first issue promised notices ''that will not be influenced by advertising.'' Thus began a feisty tradition of entertainment trade reporting and criticism that has been so severely tested in recent weeks that some wonder whether the entire era is drawing to a close. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]