Back in April Disney Publishing Worldwide announced that it was moving its employees from White Plains to New York City and Glendale, Calif.; that transition is now nearing completion. Jennifer Levine, v-p, global communications for Disney, told PW that the decision to relocate the majority of DPW's operations to Glendale "was made with the goal of more closely aligning and integrating DPW with the Walt Disney Company's incredible content and distribution platforms, which are based in California."
Personnel movements include DPW executive v-p Andrew Sugerman relocating from Shanghai to Glendale to run the business; he spent the past five years launching and growing Disney English, DPW's language learning business.
Jeanne Mosure and Simon Tasker have both made the decision to relocate to the Glendale offices. As senior v-p of content and creative and global publisher, Mosure will continue to run an organization with staff in assorted locations. Her move to Glendale will increase publishing’s already strong synergy with other divisions of the company, according to Levine. In addition to his role as DPW’s v-p of sales and marketing, Tasker is also part of Disney Consumer Products’ integrated retail team, which blends expertise from across company segments. In order to join this team right away, Tasker moved to California in late summer. Levine will remain in the New York office for the next few months to ensure business continuity. Disney Consumer Products’ corporate communications team will continue to be based in Glendale, but Jennifer Corcoran and her publicity team will remain in New York.
More than 50 positions were identified as the arm of DPW that would be permanently based in New York, including positions in editorial, design, creative operations, as well as parts of sales, marketing and publicity. Suzanne Murphy will continue in her role as v-p and publisher and will oversee the day-to-day operations of the New York team. Meanwhile, the White Plains office will remain open while space in Manhattan is finalized.
