As you may know from the news over the last forty-eight hours, The Walt Disney Company made headlines by having both the Board of Directors and the CEO fire the head of content for Disney, Peter Rice. That was a major ordeal that may signal Disney isn’t happy with something to do with how their content is being received. Perhaps it’s something else entirely — there’s certainly room for speculation — but if you fire the head of content, maybe it has to do with content?
Bob Chapek Begins His Revenge – Disney Mega Exec, Peter Rice, Ousted
In our discussions about this action at Disney, one of our writers (WDW Pro), forwarded a bit of information from Yahoo! News that we felt was perhaps of significance. One of the narratives surrounding all of this has been that Peter Rice had no idea this was coming, and that it totally blindsided the people within Disney. But maybe that’s not so much true. Let’s read the following paragraph together and you decide what you think about all of this:
Jayanta Jenkins is leaving his post as head of Content Marketing for Disney Branded Television and National Geographic Content after a year and a half. His last day is June 10.
Jenkins joined Disney in December 2020 as head of Content Marketing for Disney Branded Television and National Geographic Content, overseeing all marketing and publicity for the content created by both divisions. His appointment was revealed in Peter Rice’s big Disney General Entertainment restructuring announcement in November 2020, which saw the portfolio’s marketing operations split into three areas overseen by Jenkins; Shannon Ryan, President of Content Marketing, Hulu and General Entertainment; and FX’s marketing president Stephanie Gibbons. Jenkins reported to Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, who succeeded Gary Marsh in the post last year, and Courteney Monroe, president of National Geographic Content. Davis and Monroe announced Jenkins’ departure in an internal memo this morning. A replacement is expected to be named soon.
There are some very interesting parts to this report out of Yahoo! News that makes something previously mundane not so ordinary anymore.
Notice the date. This report came out ahead of Peter Rice’s departure, Rice being the man who hired Jayanta Jenkins. Jenkins came in with someone at Disney who is quite the hotbrand when it comes to all this cultural drama Disney has stepped into: Ayo Davis. Ayo Davis and Jayanta Jenkins came in at the same time, and you would have expected Rice to give some parting words of kindness about Jenkins. Instead, it was Ayo Davis who provided the company statement. That’s an odd thing from a horizontal position of power — in other words, she’s not from above Jenkins.
A creative powerhouse, Jayanta was originally recruited to lead marketing for Disney Channel – a role that rapidly expanded to encompass oversight of content marketing and publicity across Disney Branded Television and National Geographic. He leaned into the challenge, leading a newly-integrated, cross-functional team during a period of unprecedented growth for our businesses – all while most of us were working remotely! Throughout, Jayanta has been a tremendously thoughtful, collaborative and gracious partner, and we will miss him. — Ayo Davis
The other interesting thing is that Jenkins’ last day was yesterday, Friday. That puts his departure in the same exact week as his boss, Peter Rice. One seems voluntary, the other decidedly not. And even more bizarrely, Jenkins didn’t leave for any stated destination or improvement in his career. Instead, he states he wants to spend the summer with his son. That’s usually the kind of language reserved for ethical dismissals, though we don’t believe that to be the case for Jenkins.
All of this begs the questions:
Did anyone else know that Peter Rice’s departure was forthcoming? Is Jayanta Jenkins perhaps sticking with Peter Rice in wherever the outcasted exec lands next?
We don’t know the answers to those questions, but they’re worth asking. It just comes across very strange that a Peter Rice hire, working one level below him, would resign one week ahead of Rice’s firing with no job ahead of him and without Rice providing a statement. It could be, and probably is, a complete coincidence. But sometimes coincidences point to something else.
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