Things took a major turn for Russell Wolff at the Walt Disney Company. The ESPN Executive Vice President and GM of ESPN+ was at one time considered a candidate to succeed John Skipper as head of the network. Now he is out of a job entirely.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Wolff is one of the victims of ESPN’s first round of layoffs. He joins fellow Disney streaming executive Michael Paull in exiting. Paull was cut loose in an earlier round of layoffs.
Joe Earley, who was president of Hulu, is now president of the direct-to-consumer unit for entertainment content at Disney. There is no word yet on future leadership for ESPN+.
“It is with great pride in all that we have accomplished as a team that I share with you that I will be leaving ESPN in July,” Wolff wrote in an email to his staff obtained by The Wall Street Journal. He said ESPN “has been the most amazing professional home, in the US and overseas, anyone could have asked for.”
Prior to taking over ESPN+, Russell Wolff oversaw ESPN International.
Under Wolff’s leadership, ESPN+ had been fairly successful. The service lead the way in Disney’s overall streaming growth last year.
