Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Dec 20, 2016 12:01:28 GMT -6
variety.com/2016/digital/news/disney-folds-maker-studios-into-digital-division-courtney-holt-steps-down-exclusive-1201946127/
Disney Folds Maker Studios Into Digital Division, Courtney Holt Steps Down
Disney has moved Maker Studios to its consumer products and interactive media division, and its top executive is shifting to a new role within the company, Variety has learned.
Courtney Holt, head of Maker Studios, issued an internal memo in which he laid out the rationale for the shift.
“Merging Maker Studios with Content & Media allows DCPI to continue to expand audiences — across both physical and digital content. And, by taking a broader digital content offering to market, we can truly differentiate ourselves to advertisers and distribution platforms. Maker Studios will add to Content & Media’s capabilities around short-form content creation and distribution, making this a natural fit. Also, many of our teams have already integrated with DCPI across sales, finance, communications, marketing, legal, technology, and HR, so it makes sense to pull together the distribution, franchise, network and studio teams in one segment. As a reminder, the Content & Media organization is focused on digital publishing of original short-form and micro-content across various digital brands and social channels, along with physical publishing through Disney Book Group and licensed book titles.”
Holt is moving on to a new role at the company as EVP of media and strategy, reporting to Kevin Mayer.
Maker, which previously was a standalone unit, is now part of DCPI, which is led by Andrew Sugerman. Its placement within the company has long been an open question because it was previously placed under the oversight of Jay Rasulo, who stepped down from the CFO post in mid-2015. Then Maker’s senior-most executive, Ynon Kreiz, left the company right before 2016 began, and his No. 2, Holt, was upped.
More to come…