Hello from Munich, Germany where I am excited to be back at the DLD Conference.  

The title of this essay is a nod to “Baseball's Sad Lexicon” by Franklin Pierce Adams, a playful poem from 1910 about the shared chemistry between three Chicago Cubs infielders. This title updates it to Disney CEO Robert Iger, former Disney executives and Candle Media co-founders Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, and former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar.

This analogy isn’t exact: Kilar is the lone non-Disney veteran in that “infield.” That said, all four executives have recently been publicly discussing whether a media business must still rely on its content only, or whether in the streaming era it must do more to solve for distribution to the consumer. 

Key Takeaway

Disney’s value proposition of its library and IP is “a big niche, but it’s a niche nonetheless.” Maybe its best path forward is to embrace that reality and move on from its conglomerate past and present. 

Total words: 1,300

Total time reading: 5 minutes