OK, I read the piece and it was quite enjoyable/entertaining.
No, it wasn't 'just another' PR piece for TWDC. So, score one for Austin Carr and Fast Company!
''Bob Iger wanted approval'' ... I do love that lede.
I don't want to repeat what others have said, especially since there are some great posts from
@JediMasterMatt and
@hopemax that enter some of the territory I wanted to cover that do a fine job.
I would like to ask again if Fast Company takes placed and/or paid content? (No, Jake, I'm not suggesting this story is either ... just trying to determine a full view of the publication as it's not regular reading for me and I doubt it is for most people here. And, yes, my understanding is that, in general, it is a pro-business pub.)
There were things I liked and things I took issue with, but instead of doing a pros and cons, since I am pressed for time this evening, I'll just list things as they came to me. You can determine for yourself whether they fit as a pro or con.
I was amused by the line ''It is not the story Disney wants you to hear.'' ... Coming in the wake of Mrs. Bob Iger's, Willow Bay's, role in censoring an Op-Ed in the HuffPo (no,
@sshindel , I don't find censorship funny and doubt you would, if it happened to be your voice that was silenced.) entitled 'Disney CEO Fumbles Entry to China' by a member of Sumner Redstone's clan of crazies, no less, I don't for a second believe your story was something Disney doesn't want read.
If that were the case, then it wouldn't likely be in print and Disney certainly wouldn't have made folks like Tom Staggs available for one-on-ones. You have described an extraordinary level of cooperation coming from Burbank and Glendale and Orlando. And there's no way Nick Franklin would have ever been allowed to speak to you on the record without explicit consent from Disney. I know how those contracts are structured.
I recall the ex-O-Town Sentinel beat writer (Jason Garcia) practically begging for cooperation in writing about NGE and he got absolutely none and the indepth story he was trying to write never saw the light of day.
When your source says, ''You don't mess with the Mouse.'', I do believe that is a bit of what I am describing.
So, rest assured, tonight that Zenia Mucha isn't working to smear you and destroy your career. Disney is likely crowing about the story you wrote, even if some of it does rise to legit, and fair criticism of the company, its style and, indeed, this project.
I recall you mentioned early on that there was a sense of ''palpable excitement'' in that 2011 meeting when NGE was fully presented. I assume you weren't present, so I'm guessing that was just a bit of hyperbolic expression or were you retelling what others told you?
I know others, including the highly respected
@ParentsOf4, have warned about making any pronouncements about the 'success' (or failure) of NGE, yet you proclaim it a success early in your story. I'm guessing that's simply your opinion based on what you saw, heard and experienced because you can't judge the success of a project based on data that is incomplete at best. Disney has been very coy at saying much of anything about this over the last three years.
I liked how you focused on the issues that Disney said it was trying to solve with this program (none of which actually included adding major new attractions or entertainment to its parks). That was absolutely the genesis of NGE '' How do we make more money without building new things, while improving Guest satisfaction scores?''
That's where it all came from.
High cost was a metric you mentioned, but if it was an issue a decade ago, then you should have mentioned what NGE has done for costs of a WDW vacation. What are prices like in 2015 versus 2005 or 2008 or 2010? I think you know they have gone in one direction only: through the roof.
I know it is tough (from experience) writing something like you did with people refusing to go on the record, however, you run the risk of people tuning out when 3/4ers of your quotes are from unnamed sources.
I know as a tech writer that you are coming from that angle, but I had to laugh when you called Be Our Guest ''radical'' ... I guess it is if you like waiting and baking in the sun to get into a fast food restaurant for lunch. But all I could think was ''there's nothing radical about the lousy French Onion Soup or serving cupcakes as the only dessert option!' Yes, the roast beef sandwich is tasty, but those Cockerell fries (ask if the community if you want to know) are awful.
You say that Iger ... or present him as someone who only wanted NGE for WDW, but that fundamentally goes against how it was sold to everyone from the BoD to Wall Street to fans to CMs. It was sold as a revolutionary system that would start at WDW and then roll out world-wide (well, except for Tokyo, where Disney doesn't own the parks at all and the compant that does wants no part of this ... or China where there are unique hurdles) ... but certainly Anaheim and Paris were going to get the treatment. That talk died down years ago, but it doesn't change the fact that this project may not have gotten approval as simply a WDW-exclusive. And that's what it seems destined to be.
I have to ask where those Steve Jobs quotes came from? Was it written in the minutes of a meeting or in a memo? Or was it relayed to you by Staggs or Rasulo or Franklin (who needed work the last time I checked)
as quoting a dead guy when you aren't privy to what he said is a bit dangerous, IMHO.
I thought as the story meandered on that you made some great points about MM+ not delivering on personalization. I almost took it like Staggs (why does every writer have to talk about his healthy lifestyle? Seriously, it means nothing to a story like this and simply adds word count!) snapped at you about Guests loving those B-Day buttons.
It was that personalization aspect that sold the company, largely, on moving ahead because the proponents of NGE saw it as a way to increase revenue. All these things ... from animated window displays that interacted with MAGIC Bands ...like your 8-year-old likes dinosaurs and when he passes a window in DinoLand, a diorama comes alive and does things and you wind up spending $125 on toys you weren't planning on ... or your daughter is a big fan of Beauty and the Beast and when she passes under one of the new Castle archways, the theme from the movie plays and the lighting changes ... or when you're tucking the kids into bed at the Poly, Lilo and Stitch wish them good night from the mirror and invite the family to a $30 a head character breakfast etc. were designed to increase revenue. How can that ever happen when those parts of MM+ have simply been left ignored (like those screens on Small World)?
Great example with Dumbo of how a lot of money was spent with very little delivered (think you quoted MacPhee on that, but could be mistaken). A tent waiting area with pagers ... all to ride a spinner. Great investment or wasted spend? You be the judge.
I'm not going to argue the point about the project coming in underbudget (I could have pointed you in a different direction had I known you were writing this, but ...) I can say if you torture numbers enough they'll say anything.
And that quote by Staggs about ''making better copy" ... did he say that in person or email you it? Because it reads like something a publicist would say as they are thinking in that direction, not usual from a numbers guy.
I thought it was interesting to see the sub-heads used in the story. Don't know if they came from you, but when I saw things like Carousel of Progress, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Discovery Island, I thought ''these will definitely make fans think he's one of us.'' ... FYI, Disney's Senior Guest Recovery agents often use these 'nostalgia' fueled terms in dealing with unhappy Guests by making them think they're lovers of all that old Disney crap too. Team Disney has a list of these or did as of a few years ago.
Finally, I saw that Shanghai Disneyland Resort and My Magic Plus were mentioned after the comment about Staggs being elevated to No. 2. I doubt you are making a correlation there as both projects will be very long term in nature before results are seen. And Rasulo, who is widely hated in the fan community, had far more to do with both projects (as you noted in the story) than the guy who switched jobs with him.
Anyway, I found it an interesting and entertaining read ... I wish you would have gone further in-depth in a few areas where I felt you were right on the verge of saying something big, but often my best ideas come after I have hit post myself.
Thanks.
