21 Nov Bob Iger’s Disney Challenge: Solve the Problem He Helped Create [Vox]
BY PETER KAFKA
November 21, 2022 | Disney’s new CEO is its old CEO: Bob Iger, who ran the company for years and handed it over to his lieutenant Bob Chapek in 2020, is back, and Chapek is out.
That news is very exciting for people who work in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and normally I’d tell you that if you’re not in tech and media, it shouldn’t mean anything to you. But this one is different. It’s an executive move that tells you a lot about the state of the media industry, which is trying to figure out how to adapt to the seismic changes technology has made in the ways we consume media.
There are plenty of theories as to why Chapek was booted, all of which could have degrees of truth. The two men have had a reportedly strained relationship throughout all of Chapek’s short tenure; Chapek had upset Hollywood by publicly fighting with Marvel star Scarlett Johansson over money; perhaps most importantly, he had demoralized Disney employees over the clumsy way he handled Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s attacks on the company. (There was also plenty of head-scratching when Iger left a couple of years ago.)
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