We're offering a 2-week trial of WrapPRO for $1. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time. Greetings!After a long and heavily watched selection process, Walt Disney has finally anointed Experiences Chairman Josh D'Amaro as the new CEO, taking the reins from Bob Iger starting March 18. Dana Walden, seen as D'Amaro's main competition for the role, will stay on in the newly created role of president and chief creative officer. “He checked a lot of boxes,” Disney Chairman James Gorman told TheWrap. He described D’Amaro as a “polymath in abilities.” “Josh D’Amaro is an exceptional leader and the right person to become our next CEO,” Iger added in a statement. “He has an instinctive appreciation of the Disney brand, and a deep understanding of what resonates with our audiences, paired with the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects. His ability to combine creativity with operational excellence is exemplary and I am thrilled for Josh and the company.” D'Amaro takes over in a chaotic time in media, and he will have his hands full with a wide array of challenges. As evidenced by Disney's fiscal first-quarter earnings, he will have to continue managing the declines in its traditional linear TV business while amping up the streaming side. From a macro perspective, he'll also have to wrestle with the unpredictable and explosive political environment and industry consolidation. “In the world that changes as much as it does that in some form or another, trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake, and I’m certain that my successor will not do that,” Iger said yesterday on the analyst conference call. “So they’ll be handed, I think, a good hand in terms of the strength of the company, a number of opportunities to grow, and also the exhortation that in a world that changes, you also have to continue to change and evolve.” As our Drew Taylor writes, the appointment of D'Amaro over Walden is indicative of the importance of the theme parks and cruise business to Disney, with that unit bringing in a majority of the operating profit. Yesterday's earnings likely helped D'Amaro's case, with the Experiences unit posting record results amid rising profit while the Entertainment unit saw its operating income slide 35%. Taylor's profile of D'Amaro paints the executive as a beloved leader with fans inside Disney as well as among the public, a marked contrast to the prior successor to Iger, Bob Chapek. But he also notes that D'Amaro isn't beyond making difficult decisions, and noted that the executive was quietly responsible for some of the more unpopular changes at the Disney parks, from the removal of free FastPasses to the introduction of airline-style dynamic pricing at Disneyland Paris. "It’s a perfect summation of D’Amaro as an executive – a man who is willing to make the tough choices and cater to the demands of the board and shareholders, but able to present them in the softest, sunniest way possible, packaged in a way that will never dent his cool exterior," Taylor writes. Read on for more on D'Amaro, and stay tuned tomorrow for our breakdown of some the challenges he faces with the new gig. Separately, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos appeared before the Senate, where lawmakers grilled the executive on its pending deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming and studios business. Roger Cheng 
The announcement of D'Amaro marked a smooth transition of leadership for Disney, something that historically hasn't been the case... 
| ||||||||||||
