With the announcement this week that Senior Vice President--Sales and Marketing Bob Wayne was leaving DC Entertainment before the move to Burbank next year (see "Bob Wayne to Leave DC"), it’s no surprise that DC moved quickly to begin filling the gap. Derek Maddalena has been named as Senior Vice President Sales and Business Development for DC Entertainment. According to the announcement Maddalena will work closely with Wayne in the coming months as DC transitions its sales team from New York to Burbank, CA.
"Derek’s strong familiarity with DC Entertainment’s characters and stories through his work on the entire DC catalog film library and most recently last year's Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics original documentary make him a great fit for this new position," DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee said. Maddalena will be reporting to Co-Publishers DiDio and Lee.
It appears that some reorganization is taking place in the transition to a consolidated DC Entertainment office in Burbank (see "DC Comics Leaving New York"). Maddalena is not taking over all of Wayne’s job, which included marketing and did not include the kinds of business development Maddalena’s will include. That means there’s room for a senior marketing person in Burbank after the move. It’s not clear yet if John Cunningham, currently VP-Marketing in New York, will be making the move, and there’s also a gap above the SVPs where John Rood, who left the Burbank office as Executive Vice President--Sales, Marketing, and Business Development late last year, used to be. It’s not clear that Rood’s position will be filled.
Maddalena joins DC from 16 years at Warner Home Entertainment Group, where he was most recently VP Sales & Trade Marketing for the company’s Home Video and Digital Distribution division. He will bring experience in creating cross-divisional sales, the announcement said, as well as extensive knowledge of the WB film, TV and animation libraries, which includes a lot of DC IP, including the twenty direct-to-DVD animated films featuring DC Comics superheroes (see "DVD Round-Up: 'Son of Batman,' 'Veronica Mars,' & 'Adventure Time'"), and the DC films from Warner Bros.’ movie division.
Maddalena also has experience in selling digital content, an increasingly important part of the comics business.
What Maddalena does not have is experience where Wayne’s was strongest, with the comic store channel. Maddalena has extensive experience in trade sales, though, and the independent video stores that were within his purview bear some similarity to comic stores, although the sales trajectory in the video store channel is moving in the opposite direction. Once it’s clear who will be moving to Burbank from Wayne’s team, which included some skilled, experienced, long-term employees, the shape of DC’s new relationship with the comic store channel will become more clear.
At least DC has already met the critical requirement of making sure its top sales executive continues to have facial hair.
From Video Division
Posted by ICv2 on May 30, 2014 @ 5:49 pm CT
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