A Different Take on SaveDisney.com

First published June 15, 2004

By C. W. Oberleitner

While Jim's out west checking up on ASIFA, Chuck Oberleitner checks in with a slightly different take on things over at SaveDisney.com.

You know for a guy who can spin some of the most fascinating and interesting behind the scenes tales you might ever want to read about the entertainment industry my boss, Jim Hill, can often find himself completely out to sea when it comes to describing his own thoughts and feelings. This is particularly true when the subject is something that he cares deeply about.

Last Thursday he managed, once again, to rather successfully drop a lit match on a pile of tinder dry kindling. His column "Has SaveDisney.com really lost its way?" set off yet another fire storm in our In Boxes and a very lively, ongoing, debate on our discussion boards.

It’s a Jim Thing

Some have suggested that for one reason or another Jim has fallen into the habit of deliberately starting pissing contests with other Disney related websites. I can assure you nothing could be further from the truth.

Jim is a mellow laid back kinda guy--generally speaking. When something does get his dander up, however, he can be as prickly as an old bear coming out of hibernation after a rough winter. Must be from all those years he's spent at the end of the road in the wilds of New Hampshire. And, nothing stands his writer's fur on end faster than lazy editors, sloppy fact checking, tricks and cheap shots; especially at other Disney websites. Jim genuinely believes that if one of these sites looks bad it reflects poorly on all of us.

After days of being bombarded by e-mails and phone calls about the accuracy of Disney related stories appearing elsewhere on the Internet or what is or is not happening with the fight to oust Michael Eisner, Jim occasionally feels the need to take off his storyteller's hat and don his editor-in-chief's chapeau and pontificate er, comment. From time to time, however, his objectivity is over taken by his editor's sense of professional indignation. The result being that there's just a bit too much of that personal Jim Hill touch in some of his Op Ed pieces.

To my way of thinking that's probably what happened with last Thursday's SaveDisney.com story.

Do I still have a job? If you've made it this far and there are six paragraphs preceding this one it means that Jim's still traveling and our webmaster has posted this column.

Through the Looking Glass

One of the problems facing anyone trying to get a handle on what's going on with SaveDisney.com, and the effort to oust Michael Eisner is that nothing like this has ever happened before. We are truly through the looking glass. No CEO in history has ever withstood the types of assaults on his leadership Michael Eisner has and kept his job and the full faith and confidence of his board of directors.

During the last seven months Disney's business partners, shareholders, employees and worst of all the company's customers have publicly vilified Michael Eisner. He's made enemies out of some of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry. He lost the most successful partnership, with Pixar Animation, in motion picture history. In addition to all of this, one business publication after another has given him failing grades for his work performance over the past decade.

Throughout it all Eisner has maintained his critics are simply "misguided and misinformed." Just two weeks ago Disney board chairman, former Senator George J. Mitchell, said the board had complete confidence in Eisner.

Is it any wonder that there's confusion and debate about just what's going on and what should be happening next in the struggle to replace Eisner as Mouse House CEO. I mean, what do you have to do to get this man fired?

Imagine telling your boss that the customers and the owners of your place of employment are so disappointed in your performance they want you fired. But, that it's okay because they're misguided and misinformed. How long do you think you'd have a job?

Into the Woods

I can appreciate the difficulty faced by the folks at Shamrock Holdings and SaveDisney.com. Getting Michael Eisner and George Mitchell to face reality and accept the fact that most of the world wants to see them gone is no small feat. At the same time I have to say that I feel that Jim made some valid points about the nature of SaveDisney.com's recent efforts to accomplish that goal.

The problem is that following Shamrock's early stunning successes at the WDC shareholders' meeting last March, no one anticipated that there would still be an ongoing need, three months later, for SaveDisney.com. Much less that it would be seen as the de facto standard bearer around which disgruntled small--non institutional--investors and dissatisfied Disney customers would rally for what's become known as Round Two of the fight to oust Michael Eisner.

Conventional wisdom held that following his historic 45% no confidence vote among Disney shareholders Michael Eisner should either have resigned or been dismissed by the Disney board. After that Shamrock Holdings would have been able to slowly wind down and phase out SaveDisney.com following the appointment of Eisner's successor. That didn't happen and Roy Disney, Stanley Gold and the rest of their team over at Shamrock found themselves playing a whole new game.

SaveDisney.com's early mission seemed clear too most. It was to rally the troops to Roy and Stan's side. It carried the message of shareholder unrest and customer dissatisfaction to a worldwide audience. And, in so doing became a virtual rallying point. Initially it was very successful in doing these things. Nowadays, however, it seems to have lost its focus.

Where once national media quoted SaveDisney.com in the struggle to unseat Eisner it has now taken to emulating other Disney fan sites and filling its pages with fan friendly polls and cheap shots like Merlin Jones' Memorial Day Tower of Terror photo essay. Not exactly what you'd call red meat for the folks who stood shoulder to shoulder with Roy and Stan in Philadelphia and who still want to be part of the fight to dump Mike.

What's a Fella to Do?

One of the questions about Jim's criticism of SaveDisney.com that popped up again and again on our discussion boards is;

"What would you have them do?"

The answer is, lead don't follow. If I want to see pictures of how bad things are at Disneyland all I have to do is point my browser to MiceAge.com. If you want to spend time reminiscing about the past glories of Disney parks, movies, and television shows you literally have thousands of web pages and discussion boards to choose from.

With Michael Eisner's refusal to face reality and board chairman Mitchell's support its obvious that, at least part of, this struggle is going to have to take place from the bottom up. By that I mean pressure needs to be brought to bear, by the troops that SaveDisney.com once so successfully mustered, on the Disney board as a whole to get them to see that the world outside of Team Disney Burbank is not simply "misguided and misinformed."

Shortly after the Disney shareholders' meeting Donovan Cook, director of Disney's upcoming The Three Musketeers, began an email campaign to try to convince the company to give the traditionally animated film a theatrical release. Disney planned to release the film straight to DVD. Mr. Cook wrote a letter to people in the animation industry, in it he said that Disney CEO Michael Eisner didn't believe "there is a large enough audience for Mickey to be in the theaters". He also stated that Disney President Bob Iger believed "releasing The Three Musketeers in the theaters is too big of a financial risk because it is not computer animation"

SaveDisney.com, which had just successfully rallied thousands of supporters in Philadelphia, did little more than offer a series of links to various stories about Mr. Cook's efforts. Instead of joining forces with this man in a cause (traditional animation) they claim to hold dear they left Mr. Cook to his own devices.

What could they have done? SaveDisney.com, which operates out of Shamrock Holdings, could have worked closely with Sitrick and Company, Shamrock's media relations consultants, to lead the charge to get a wider audience for Mr. Cook's story.

This soon after the shareholders' meeting the media was still very interested in hearing what Roy Disney had to say about the future of animation. He could have easily helped Mr. Cook make his case on NBC's Today Show or any of a dozen other national telecasts. At the same time, he could have used SaveDisney.com to request that his supporters write each and every member of the WDC board of directors regarding Mr. Eisner and Mr. Iger's short sightedness in this matter.

What happened instead was that the spotlight drifted away from SaveDisney and moved on to Martha Stewart. Score one for Disney.

As previously stated, whether Shamrock intended it or not SaveDisney.com has become a rallying point for small investors and Disney customers dissatisfied with the direction of the WDC. They understand that the next major push to unseat Uncle Mike at the Mouse House may not take place before the next shareholders' meeting in 2005. That doesn't mean that they're content to just sit back, watch and wait. Many still want to take the fight to the streets. And here too SaveDisney.com seems to have dropped the ball.

For their rally in Philadelphia, SaveDisney produced a very striking blue t-shirt with the SaveDisney.com logo and slogan, "Bring back the magic" in bright yellow lettering. SaveDisney.com should be selling these shirts. Not for profit, but not at a loss either.

Every t-shirt should include a personal message from Roy Disney. The message should encourage supporters who share his desire to see positive change at the Disney company wear their SaveDisney.com shirts whenever they visit a Disney theme park or go out to see Disney film. That message should be repeated on the SaveDisney.com website.

Eventually, after seeing others do this, momentum will build. Instead of asking who your favorite Mousketeer is SaveDisney.com could, as nineteen year old reader "danielfe" suggested on our boards, "use the internet to muster a lot of shareholders behind your cause…you could try using sites like meetup.com to get shareholders meeting and talking."

Imagine SaveDisney.com rally days at Walt Disney World and Disneyland or, perhaps a worldwide rally day at every Disney theme park around the world, Tokyo, Anaheim, Orlando, and Paris. Don't you think that sort of thing would attract major media attention? Apparently Mr. Eisner does.

Sources inside the WDC have suggested to JimHillMedia that because of a comment I made, in a previous column, suggesting supporters of SaveDisney use the lobby of the Grand Californian as an informal meeting place, this past April's Disney board retreat was hastily relocated to the company's headquarters in Burbank.

The official reason given for relocating the retreat was that the company didn't want Disneyland Resort guests disturbed by the media. The media, however, would not have been allowed on property unless invited, which they weren't. In addition, when it suits the company Disneyland Resort guests are frequently disturbed even displaced by the media.

The Internet is an amazingly powerful tool. If Mr. Disney and Mr. Gold are to prevail in bringing new leadership to the WDC I, for one, believe they could be making much better use of this tool as part of an overall strategy to accomplish their goals.

What do you think?

C'ya real soon!