【】
Maker Studios is undergoing yet another shake-up at its new Disney home.
The digital entertainment company is merging with parent company Disney's Content & Media department, which is part of its consumer products and interactive media division, Mashablehas confirmed.
Courtney Holt, Maker Studios' top exec, will move to new corporate role at Disney as EVP of media and strategy.
"Merging Maker Studios with Content & Media allows DCPI to continue to expand audiences — across both physical and digital content," Holt wrote in a memo to staff, obtained by Mashable. "And, by taking a broader digital content offering to market, we can truly differentiate ourselves to advertisers and distribution platforms."
Variety first reported the news.
SEE ALSO:Inside Disney's digital 'newsroom': 'Our goal is to win the Internet every day'The news comes just two years after Disney dished out a whopping $675 million for the world's second-largest multiplatform network.
Credit: maker studios/screenshotMaker Studios, which will still operate out of its Culver City location, boasts a network of about 55,000 independent creators who collectively draw in 10 billion views per month.
This year, the digital entertainment company made great strides in its efforts to ramp up its original content with several new series — such as Scare PewDiePie, a YouTube Red series that just wrapped filming of its second season; the digital talk show Party Fun Times, hosted by Taryn Southern; and the skateboard travel adventureThe Unge Quest, starring German gamer Simon Unge.
But content couldn't help salvage the company's corporate woes.
Ynon Kreiz, the CEO who helped facilitate the Disney deal, left Maker Studios in January.
Two months later, Bonnie Pan, Maker Studios' executive vice president of programming, left the company to tackle the role of president at Endemol Beyond.
In May, the company scaled back its digital Newfront presentation, holding an intimate breakfast for brand clients only. Then, in July, Maker Studios went through a round of layoffs.
Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media -- which Mashableprofiled in May -- is located in Burbank. The division, led by Andrew Sugerman, aims to get all things Disney — ranging from movies like Alice Through the Looking Glassto new Disney products — to resonate on the Internet. Its core brands include Disney Style, Oh My Disney (a Millennial focused property, like Buzzfeedwith a Disney lens), DisneyFamily and Babble. They also distribute original content through their portfolio of sites and owned apps, including Disney GIF and the Star Wars app.
A person familiar with the consumer products and interactive media division said the move will help both Maker Studios and Disney combine resources, and further integrate influencers with Disney IP.
Holt echoed this notion in his memo.
"Maker Studios will add to Content & Media’s capabilities around short-form content creation and distribution, making this a natural fit," he wrote. "Also, many of our teams have already integrated with DCPI across sales, finance, communications, marketing, legal, technology, and HR, so it makes sense to pull together the distribution, franchise, network and studio teams in one segment."
TopicsDisneyYouTube