COVER STORY: Inside CEO John Stankey's 'action-oriented' approach to reposition WarnerMedia
, AT&T’s vision for its hard-fought $85.4 billion acquisition is coming into view. And as some predicted back at AT&T University, the magnitude of change implemented by the new regime has been dizzying and jarring.
There is a feeling among some on the Warner Bros. lot that Stankey has little regard for the studio’s distinct culture and the work of making movies and television. “He thinks we’re spoiled creative people,” one top studio executive opines. Predictable culture clashes emerged as the AT&T era began, which means that the transition Stankey is leading has been anything but smooth.
The decision to lend the prestigious HBO moniker to non-HBO programming, something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, is the biggest signal that a new era has dawned for the former Time Warner fiefdoms. “The bet is on Warners’ new streaming service to get AT&T to the promised land,” says Peter Csathy, founder and chairman of Creatv Media.
“This debt load was a decision we made consciously, [confident] that we know how to get ourselves back to a healthy balance sheet,” says Stankey. But there was a period of adjustment. Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, admits to being wary of a boss he now praises as “smart” and “thoughtful.”
“I’m action-oriented. I have a bias to wanting to move forward, not to contemplate and evaluate,” Stankey says. “The first step is trying to get everybody to agree to do something. Absent that, I’ll make the decision on behalf of everybody, if they don’t want to call or pick the direction, for want of not staying in the same place.”
The turmoil at HBO over the past few months has been magnified by the fact that numerous long-serving senior executives have followed ousted CEO Richard Plepler out the door, including president and chief revenue officer Simon Sutton, distribution chief Bernadette Aulestia, miniseries head Kary Antholis and PR chief Quentin Schaffer. In New York, HBO has also moved into the Hudson Yards complex — under the same roof as its parent company for the first time in years.
Adds Greenblatt: “By and large, I think people understand that the changes being made are vital to set WarnerMedia up for the future.” There’s no denying that Tsujihara’s exit cast a pall over the studio lot. Despite the serious allegations, the affable executive, who took pains to remember names and personal details about staffers, was well-liked.
“The tentpole franchise dynamic has squeezed a lot of stuff out of theatrical production,” says Stankey. “This is going to allow some things to come in that more super-serve various niches in the customer base.” “John makes WarnerMedia a place where artists have creative freedom, not just around subject matter but across platforms,” said Jordan. “That forward-thinking model and his openness to different perspectives and points of view was a big part of what solidified my commitment to expanding Outlier Society’s partnership within the organization.”
But analysts think that Disney Plus has painted WarnerMedia into a corner by announcing that it will initially be priced at $6.99. In contrast, HBO currently sets subscribers back $14 to $15 a month, so it stands to reason that adding more stuff to the platform would come at a higher cost.
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