Go right straight down the road, to do what is best, and to do it frankly and without evasion. | | | | Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall at his headquarters in the War Department. Jan. 1, 1943.
(Bettmann/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "Go right straight down the road, to do what is best, and to do it frankly and without evasion."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// One of the greatest figures in American history was GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL. The brilliant mind and leader behind the armed forces build up, strategy, and mobilization logistics that played an enormous role in propelling the allies to victory in WWII. Evil was defeated. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT once said to him, "I couldn't sleep nights, George, if you were out of Washington." ORSON WELLES was in awe too. A great documentary about the man here. Before Marshall's leadership, the U.S. armed forces were in sad shape. Low numbers. Old weapons and gear. Outdated training and tactics. He understood that you don't go to war until you're ready for war and ready to win. I think about this now as I watch the great media battle unfold. "The Streaming Wars," as some have dubbed it. When I was at VIACOM from 2000-2006, NEWS CORP from 2009-2011 and basically every week here at REDEF, I've warned that media companies have moved too slow and allowed major players like NETFLIX to emerge using their content weapons. No, before you start, I am not comparing Netflix to the Axis powers. I admit that this ranting can get tiresome for me (even though I'm right) and those on the other side of the conversation. Mea culpa. But most incumbents are not ready for war. A few weeks out from DISNEY's investor day I can look back and say that this is a media company that has mobilized and is ready for war. They've taken a look at businesses that are in decline and thought about what the company's growth engines will be in the future. Imagine Disney CEO BOB IGER and his generals like KEVIN MAYER, PETER RICE, JIMMY PITARO, and other division heads sitting in front of the world map media ecosystem and plotting where to go next and what structure would be best to facilitate future success. An astonishing programming/IP engine. The current and forthcoming streaming services are under centralized management. Looking at the audience as a whole and what services will "liberate" them. Content sales also. This gives them a world view of which programming assets should go where and how that will maximize revenue and growth. Ad sales too. You can buy an audience and reach across a breathtaking number of brands and platforms. HULU, now that operational control is in their hands, will likely join this alliance. Tech infrastructure like BAMTECH, yep. Data culled from all Disney touch points. They are arming up and ready to rock. One of the major decisions of WWII was whether D-DAY would happen at NORMANDY or PAS-DE-CALAIS. The secret was kept until the last moment. That deception was a major turning point in history. They landed at Normandy. While this may seem obvious, what is Disney's Normandy? The parks. I went to ORLANDO a few weeks ago. When I checked into my hotel I got a Disney bracelet and linked my credit card to it. It made for easy going inside the park through rides and commerce. "With an average annual attendance of over 52 million visitors, WALT DISNEY WORLD is the most visited vacation resort in the world." Imagine if every family that walks through those gates gets a free trial of DISNEY+, ESPN+, and HULU. That's a subscription funnel to victory. War and strategy are never linear. There will be SNAFUs. And course corrections. But if you had to bet, they will be one of THE winners. WALT DISNEY would be excited about the future... I love hamburgers. But since heart surgery, they are not a frequent occurrence. Maybe 1/month. For those who live in LOS ANGELES, I have a good FACEBOOK thread going about the best burgers in LA. Chime in... I was at dinner with my pal YOUTUBE's Chief Business Officer ROBERT KYNCL where we discussed the herculean task of monitoring the massive platform. It's an awesome undertaking. I don't think these issues will ever fully be solved but headway is being made. There's lots more to learn and to do but they don't get enough credit for it. PETER KAFKA talks to Chief Product Officer NEAL MOHAN about what it takes to clean it up... Friends doing well: HEATHER HARTNETT and JOE MARCHESE arm up and hire up at HUMAN VENTURES with an impressive list of names... JAGGER and RICHARDS do right by RICHARD ASHCROFT... Happy Birthday to CHRIS MOORE, GREG MAFFEI, DASH MIHOK, DOUG COHN, KANYI MAQUBELA, DAVID FRENCH, MITCH JOEL, ERIC SCHUMACHER-RASMUSSEN, DAVID SAMUEL, LESLIE DICKSTEIN, CAROLYN CANTOR, and ROB BARNETT. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator | | | |  | CNN | | Advances in artificial intelligence could soon make creating convincing fake audio and video - known as "deepfakes" - relatively easy. Making a person appear to say or do something they did not has the potential to take the war of disinformation to a whole new level. | | | |  | inma | | Delegates at the INMA World Congress of News Media enjoyed a lengthy Q&A with New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet. The career journalist discussed his newsroom's relationship with President Donald Trump, access to quality journalism, trust in journalists, the frightening fate of local newspapers, and what keeps him up at night. "The greatest crisis in American journalism is the death of local news." | | | |  | Vox | | A Q&A with Neal Mohan, YouTube's chief product officer. | | | |  | TED Talks | | Hollywood needs to stop resisting what the world actually looks like, says actor, director and activist America Ferrera. Tracing the contours of her career, she calls for more authentic representation of different cultures in media -- and a shift in how we tell our stories. "Presence creates possibility," she says. | | | |  | Human Parts | | When the loss of romantic love no longer breaks your heart, life finds another way | | | |  | The Ringer | | In honor of 'Booksmart' joining the illustrious genre on Friday (May 24), here are the best films about cliques, camaraderie, and coming of age. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Not long ago, politicians didn't take the daytime talk show seriously. Now it's an essential campaign stop for Democrats and Republicans alike. | | | |  | POLITICO Magazine | | How a fast-growing city has invested heavily in mass transit alternatives to keep a lid on gridlock. | | | |  | Bloomberg | | Thirty-two-year-old French economist Gabriel Zucman scours spreadsheets to find secret offshore accounts. | | | |  | Fortune Magazine | | Hollywood producer Cassian Elwes talked to Fortune about what he's doing to advocate for women in the film industry and why he's doing it. | | | |  | The Conversation | | From Steve Smith's tearful apology to anonymous apps like Whisper, public confessions can be therapeutic, emancipatory, or potentially exploitative. | | | |  | Forbes | | Jan Jones Blackhurst is today the voice of diversity and inclusion at Caesars Entertainment, and is renowned as the first female mayor of Las Vegas and a successful entrepreneur. In this profile by Micah Solomon, she explains how deep hospitality, diversity and inclusion can build the bottom line. | | | |  | Techdirt | | As we noted when Julian Assange was arrested in the UK last month, it was notable how... lacking the charges were. The whole thing revolved around an apparently failed attempt to help Chelsea Manning crack a CIA password. | | | |  | Billboard | | This summer concert season, long-overlooked aisle seats are the stars of the show, as data-driven dynamic pricing increases profits for promoters and artists alike. | | | |  | Salon | | Salon talks to Oscar-winning writer Aaron Sorkin about adapting the classic Harper Lee story for the Trump era. | | | |  | Slate | | Children's television is meant to educate kids about the world in which they live. That world includes same-sex couples. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | As the NXIVM case shows, "cult-hopping" is more common than you think. | | | |  | Elemental | | How blood flow restriction became the hottest method in physical therapy. | | | |  | BuzzFeed News | | As hip-hop and streaming change the power dynamics of musical celebrity, Jepsen and other artists making traditional pop have embraced a new kind of boutique stardom. | | | |  | Bloomberg Businessweek | | Marc Benioff's acquisitions have kept the software giant growing at an incredible rate. He's also made some costly errors. | | | |  | Real Life | | Contemporary cinema struggles to represent how deeply phones have restructured everyday life. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
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