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- Anyone surprised by the recent WarnerMedia layoffs? I’m not. Turner general manager Brett Weitz, Tom Ascheim at Warners’ kids group, P.R. head Johanna Fuentes, the international execs—all held jobs made moot by incoming Discovery people. And some, like Warner Bros.’ general counsel John Rogovin, are choosing to leave rather than get layered. That’s normal. I do know the Turner people felt blindsided when they learned, via the media and not their new bosses, that scripted originals were “paused” (killed), but C.F.O. Gunnar Wiedenfels is questioning everything.
- Also not surprising: That Gunnar came for the C.W. shows. Today’s cancellation of seven series is the beginning of the end, I’m afraid. The Warner-CBS joint venture is being sold to Nexstar, which will likely turn it into a broadcast version of NewsNation and milk it for carriage fees and political ads. Not much room for scripted shows there.
- As predicted, Fred Savage has lawyered up after his termination from The Wonder Years over claims of inappropriate conduct. Litigator Larry Stein, who repped Savage in a previous case, is involved, as is Hiltzik Strategies for crisis P.R.
- Those who questioned whether publicist Kelly Bush was using the Golden Globes fight to raise her own profile in the industry: She’s now running for the Academy board of governors.
- Want to feel gross? Disney C.E.O. Bob Chapek bragged on his earnings call yesterday that Disney visitors are spending 40 percent more per person in the parks than in 2019.
Now for more on Disney and Chapek…
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Bob Chapek’s Hail Mary |
Disney’s subscriber growth is holding up, but the playbook has changed and Chapek lags in the metric Wall Street now wants—actual revenue. With the goalposts of success moved and added pressure on Marvel and the rest, the embattled C.E.O. is making bold promises and writing checks his company may not be able to cash. |
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I’m on a text chain with a couple executive friends at Disney, so the three of us decided to live-chat yesterday’s much-anticipated earnings reveal. I’ll spare you most of the dumb jokes and poop emojis; it’s safe to say it got pretty cynical, pretty fast.
When reporters started tweeting that Disney+ added 7.9 million subscribers in the second quarter, beating estimates and avoiding the dreaded Netflix loss, the messages began flying: “We’re saved!” one of them wrote, following up with that gif of Elaine from Seinfeld dancing wildly in Jerry’s apartment. “Streaming is hard,” the other wrote when I texted a trade headline noting that Disney took a $900 million hit on its direct-to-consumer efforts, triple the loss in the segment a year ago. “Pam n tommy alert!” the same friend wrote when C.E.O. Bob Chapek shouted out the Hulu hit, almost certainly the first time a piece of content featuring a talking penis was plugged on a Disney earnings call. Then, toward the end (or when the three of us started losing interest), the most biting text of all: “Dammit chapek didn’t eff up.”
My friend was joking, but only half so. His wish, which actually mirrors what I’ve heard from others in and around the company, is that the faster the embattled Chapek shovels himself a hole inescapably deep, the faster the Disney board will remove him, the faster a new C.E.O. with content experience and media savvy can be installed, and the faster the company will begin to recover... |
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