Apparently all that lobbying money and fundraiser donations to political candidates isn’t doing much to help Walt Disney World. The US Embassy denied a travel visa to a 9-year old boy in Britain whose grand parents wanted to take him on a surprise trip to… Read More »US policies denying 9-year old Britons from visiting Disney World
Yesterday, on Walt Disney’s 109th birthday, The Walt Disney Company made an announcement fitting the legacy of a man who found joy by bringing entertainment to the masses. Disney has passed a major social media milestone as it has reached an audience of one hundred… Read More »Disney passes huge Facebook milestone – 100 million fans
A friend recently pointed out to me that there’s an interesting milestone coming up for the Walt Disney Company. On February 14th of this year, the Walt Disney Company will have operated longer without Walt Disney than it did with him (the company having been… Read More »Major Disney Milestone Coming Up
When it times of tough economics, the nations television viewing habits turn toward the sit-com. The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and others got their start by riffing on the American family dealing with daily situations. ABC seems to have hit about the formula that works for… Read More »Modern Family gathers accolades for Disney
Yesterday we saw mixed messages from stock analysts on the earnings potential of the Walt Disney Company of the rest of the year. One analyst is eating a bit of crow after predicting that Pixar’s UP would tank. He graciously admitted his bad in the… Read More »Analysts Mixed on Disney’s Potential
Many Disney theme park fans have been wondering where Disney is spending it’s money these days. Sure there is the $800 million or so Disney is spending to fix the mistake that is Disneyland’s former parking lot, aka California Adventure, but there doesn’t appear to… Read More »Where Disney is spending its money
Update: Many more details revealed at Disney Online. I was just sent the two photos below of what appears to be membership pins for a new merchandise club for Disney fans called D23. (WDW News Today is running the same photos so I hope they’re… Read More »D23, Disney’s New Membership Club
The change that we all knew was coming has been announced. Once Disney announced that they would be offering severance packages to hundreds of Parks and Resorts Division Executives, I knew the next shoe to drop would be a further consolidation of the east and west coast management structures.
Frankly, Disney has been trending this way a long time. Disneyland lifers have been holding out against the move fearing they would lose some of what makes Walt Disney’s original park special, but the economic crisis has given Jay Rasulo the ammunition to install the changes.
This new action will result in some job loss even below the executive level that was offered severance packages. Unfortunately the details were not announced so we don’t know how deep job loss will go.
Two areas we know are going to get hit hard are: Imagineering and Theme Park Operations. At Walt Disney Imagineering everyone will be consolidated into a single group that handles design for all parks.
The operating infrastructure at Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort will also be merged to create a single domestic organization and “back-of-house” operation.
Disney execs were putting the final touches on these changes last week while in town for the American Idol Experience launch.
The changes announced today are effective immediately.
Disney’s Press Release on the reorganization is below the cut and don’t miss Jason Garcia’s coverage at the Orlando Sentinel.:
Read More »Disney Parks and Resorts Division Restructures for Cost Savings