David Zaslav: A Cautious Defense
Criticism of his day-to-day actions are obscuring some, dare I say, shrewd long-term moves
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In Nate Silver’s latest book, On the Edge, he focuses less on data and more on decision-making and risk. (Yes, there are plenty of statistics.) For those who haven’t seen the coverage — and Silver was interviewed by seemingly every podcaster on Earth — Silver thinks the world is divided into two camps: the Village, which values consensus, and the River, which values data.
Guess which camp Silver puts both Hollywood and the media? Yep, squarely in the Village.
Would that mean that the media covering Hollywood has “double” the consensus? I’d argue it does! Themes emerge and they quickly become conventional wisdom in the Village, like, say, Netflix won the Streaming Wars, or YouTube won the Streaming Wars. Venture outside the Village to challenge an accepted narrative with data — like, say Netflix did not singlehandedly make Formula 1 popular — and you’ll find yourself standing alone in the cold.
Here’s a good one: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is the worst CEO in Hollywood, a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. Go on social media right now and disparage “Zaz” and bask in the likes and approval from the Village, which has anointed Zaslav as Shari Redstone’s replacement as Hollywood’s go-to villain (Redstone replaced former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, and so it goes).
If everyone is insulting someone — particularly if it’s brutal and sometimes personal — it’s especially easy to join in or at the very least stay quiet, lest the fire gets drawn your way. It’s lonely to ask, “But is he that awful?”
When it comes to strategy, though, things are never as simple as good guys and bad guys.
So you know where this is going: Let’s explore whether David Zaslav is that bad at his job. Spoiler! I don’t think he is. The Village has herded around an extreme position, and extreme positions tend to be flawed. My point here is not to argue that Zaslav is a 10, but he’s not a zero either, so we’ll determine where he falls in between. I’m not here to defend the embarrassing tan suit imbroglio, the endless layoffs, or the courtside obsession but rather by his strategic decisions: Is he building long-term value beneficial to WBD, especially considering the hand most linear media was dealt? How will that play out over the next few years, especially considering the debt he took on to get the Warner Bros. deal done?
If I sound like a guy from the River battling consensus, that’s why I enjoyed Silver’s book so much. (Yeah, a data nerd likes the new book by the “king of the data nerds,” but trust me, this is more about being a bold thinker than a numbers wonk.)
In this article, you’ll learn:
The strategic rationales for Zaslav’s most controversial moves in sports, TV and film
How the narratives that formed around those decisions obscure good ones he’s made in divisions across WBD
The choices Zaslav’s made that augur well for the health of his content businesses
Why WBD has a lot of potential in ancillary businesses
Whether WBD can handle its huge debt load
How Zaslav is well situated for the anticipated industry disruption to come no matter who the next U.S. President is
Sports: A Counterintuitive Bet on Value
No topic exemplifies the gap between consensus and reality like WBD’s sports media decisions . . .
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