America, meet the “Shark Week Man.” He celebrates with Bono, magnetically surpasses Bill Clinton, and has the skills to become the clear heir to Bob Iger
Enter David Zaslav, the longtime president of Discovery TV, whose $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia immediately made him a dominant player in the streaming wars. Hollywood insiders say the nicknamed “King David” has the personality and sophistication needed to transform the entire industry. He’ll need it while competitors take the swipes, tantrums happen to the talent roster, and Hollywood’s powerful labor unions battle the notoriously frugal CEO at every cost-cutting move.
“There is definitely the charisma, laser-like focus and personality traits that come with the allure of the entertainment business,” said one former Hollywood CEO. “When you talk to him, everything disappears and you feel that they are only interested in what you want to say.”
Zaslav superpowers
Zaslav’s charisma is a superpower well known among industry insiders as the way a CEO forges alliances and threatens competitors to get what he wants. The magic factor makes him one of the most connected corporate leaders in the world – and he seems like someone you need to hang out with.
Stories are legend. He somehow dragged Oprah Winfrey into a late-night drinking session to meet Bono at New York’s Soho House, where he dealt cards at regular poker games with Jimmy Buffett and Irving Azoff, and the annual Labor Day parties in the Hamptons filled with strong names from Lorne Michaels to judge Supreme Court Stephen Breyer.
It is not only connected to SCOTUS, but it is also connected to at least POTUSes. A regular on Washington Magazine’s annual list, Zaslav was a guest at President Barack Obama’s state dinner, and was awarded by President Bill Clinton with the 2010 Discovery Educational Programs Award.
After earning recognition at the annual Clinton Global Initiative, Zaslav has been tested in his ability to grab people’s attention since the former president wrote a book about giving everyone he meets his full and undivided focus. But at a VIP-only reception held that night inside the ballroom of the Sheraton, one of the attendees said that Zaslav held court with a few other guests as the whole room began to ring: the room.” But the people Zaslav was talking to?” They didn’t look Start.”
By all accounts, these skills are needed because Warner Bros.’ first CEO. Discovery is facing critics who are already lining up for what could be a brisk honeymoon period. His first major decision to name a board of directors drew sharp criticism for not including any Latinos, and this was exacerbated by the fact that the headquarters in Los Angeles is located in an area where the ethnic group makes up 48% of the population.
The National Alliance of Hispanic Media has posted a meme on social media using Warner Bros.’ new logo. Discovery, altering Zaslav’s personally chosen motto “The Things Dreams Are Made Of” by fiddling with “Unless You’re Latin”.
Zaslav has been under the radar so far
Then there’s Zaslav’s lack of name recognition outside of New York City and Washington, D.C., where politics, media, and business are rooted in culture. Other heads of entertainment, such as former CBS leader Leslie Moonves, were able to penetrate the consciousness of Main Street America.
Zaslav has mostly worked under the public’s radar since starting his career in 1989 as a young CEO at NBC before becoming CEO of Discovery Communications in 2006. By contrast, cable giant brands like Food Network, TLC and Animal Planet is dwarfed by the Big Three Networks.
One area where Zaslav has stood out is his compensation package, which totaled $246 million in 2021, making him the highest-paid leader of any US public company. By comparison, Iger earned $54.9 million, with Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Chuck getting $32.5 million. Zaslav Routinely ranks first in the list of high-income earnersThis is mostly thanks to the company’s increased size and also because mentor John Malone is the company’s largest shareholder.
But even inside the halls of Warner Bros. When news of the deal broke last spring, some employees swooped on computer keyboards to search for “ZASLAV.” One development executive said that an employee who had never heard of the new boss before started referring to him as the “shark week guy.”
And on CNN just a few years ago, the Warner-owned cable news giant taunted the CEO of Discovery with a headline: “David Zaslav made $156 million last year. Who?”
They will surely know World Health Organization in the coming months.
The company is close to slashing costs by nearly $3 billion, with more than one Wall Street analyst privately using the word “bloodbath” to describe impending layoffs due to overlapping areas such as television, marketing and back-office jobs. No official word, but downsizing could dwarf the 4,000 jobs that were abolished when Disney bought 21st Century Fox’s entertainment portfolio three years ago.
Zaslav is now on a multi-city listening tour to introduce himself to the 27,000 employees of Warner Bros. They are expected to suffer the brunt of rosacea. The first visit on Monday was with CNN staff, who said the new president praised the network’s coverage in Ukraine and expressed confidence in the newly launched CNN+ amid reports that the streaming service is struggling.
He visited the offices of Warner Bros. In Atlanta on Tuesday, WarnerMedia/HBO offices in Culver City on Wednesday — and concluded its tour Thursday with a company-wide town hall in the Warner Bros. Iconic.
There is no expectation that the mass meeting will be confrontational, but collective nervousness is likely to dominate. The company’s chief financial officer, Gunnar Wiedensfels previously, has stated that there is “improvement potential” — a buzzword about companies which, according to Bank of America media analyst Jessica Reeve, means he looks at everything from the type of software the payroll department uses to the third place. Party marketing budgets.
“Gunnar is the best in this field, he is very accurate,” she said. “Everything in the merged company will be under a magnifying glass, and [Zaslav] He is going through a difficult process that is a critical time for the next six months.”
The company’s new executive team is trying to breathe new life into the Warner Bros. studio. Dating back nearly a century, it has been reinvented as the industry decides when to release movies in theaters and when to make it available on streaming platforms.
And CEOs like Zaslav will be front and center with the ordinary Americans who have long been fascinated by the machinations of entertainment tycoons. Almost anyone in the country with access to a computer or TV can watch Warner Bros. movies. and HBO series and reality TV shows on Discovery.
“David has the charisma and drive to keep expanding the company and keep innovating,” said a banker who was close to the cable company’s deal to buy the studio from parent company AT&T Corp. “This is the era of the famous CEO.”
Omar the famous CEO
The dawn of the era of famous CEOs began when Lee Iaccoca gained fame by becoming a CEO who turned around struggling automaker Chrysler. His television advertising became an iconic segment of television during the 1980s.
For Wall Street, prominent financiers such as Carl Icahn and T-Bone Pickens grabbed the spotlight. Technology co-founders Bill Gates and Steve Jobs ruled.
But the pioneer who meant the most to Zaslav was Jack Welch, president of General Electric, whose multinational group owns NBC. “Neutron Jack” has been credited with starting his career and is still close to his widow, Susie Welch.
Business leaders have paved the way for today’s most watched CEOs that include JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in banking, Mark Zuckerberg for technology and former Disney chief Iger Entertainment.
However, the entertainment industry remains without a prominent CEO since Iger retired from his Burbank position in 2020. He has turned Disney into a financial fortress with a deal-making spree that has included Fox, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm and Pixar Animation.
Zaslav could inherit the famous CEO title given the current chapter — Disney’s Bob Chuck, Paramount’s Bob Bakish, Lionsgate’s John Feltheimer, and NBCUniversal’s Jeff Shell — has not produced a rock star studio head.
The only person controlling the pace of potential business is Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who has been largely quiet for Murdoch since he inherited the family business in 2015. Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos and Amazon’s Mike Hopkins have all been visible leaders among the streaming pioneers. direct.
One thing that seems certain is that not all of these studios and their CEOs will survive the upcoming reorganization. Jason Keeler, the head of WarnerMedia who Zaslav didn’t take with him on the trip, is only expecting Disney, Netflix and now Discovery Warner Bros. at the end of a “three-horse race.” Another good vote of confidence in Zaslav.
