David Ellison is showing that his tech-first vision for Paramount Skydance isn’t just talk.
Ellison is taking his data-focused strategy to a new level by elevating Jason Kim, Paramount’s EVP of data and insights, to oversee data for the entire company, instead of just the direct-to-consumer division.
The change was announced by Domenic DiMeglio — who heads up marketing as well as data and insights for Paramount’s streaming division — in a Thursday afternoon staff meeting, a recording of which was obtained by Business Insider.
Kim’s increased remit comes a day after Ellison, Paramount’s CEO, met with company leadership in its New York offices.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for Jason — and for the team overall — to start playing a bigger role for what’s happening at Paramount as we move forward,” DiMeglio said in the meeting.
DiMeglio added that Kim’s bigger role is part of “David’s vision of trying to transform ourselves into being a tech-first media company — and, really, the most tech-forward media company in this space.”
Ellison has remade Paramount in other ways since taking control of the company in August, including securing US UFC rights, hiring Bari Weiss to lead CBS News, and attempting to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
While Paramount already had data and analytics teams across the company, it now has a new point person to oversee those efforts.
“I would hope and expect that, little by little, we’re going to bring those silos down,” DiMeglio said. He added it’s “not easy work.”
Dane Glasgow, Paramount’s chief product officer, said in an email to employees that “these updates are part of a broader effort to focus our investments, reduce fragmentation, and move faster as one team.”
Paramount’s streaming team has become familiar with change. Last week, Paramount’s streaming product and tech chief, Vibol Hou, told colleagues he was leaving at the end of January, Business Insider reported.
“You could probably sense that there’s been some musical chairs stuff going on within the organization at large,” Kim said. “And that’s not unique. That’s sort of true of any company that’s undergoing a large-scale organizational transformation, like the one that we’re in the midst of now.”
Continuing the musical chairs analogy, Kim said that this change signals that “this is our chair — we’re here to stay.”
Although Paramount laid off about 1,000 employees in October, a few months after its Skydance merger closed, Kim downplayed the idea that this data and insights shake-up signals that more cuts are ahead.
“I don’t think our scope is going to get smaller here. It is only going to get larger,” Kim said. “And I think those are all exciting tailwinds for us as a team.”
Kim added that “there might be more consolidation in the future, but that’s going to be into our team.”
Two Paramount employees in the meeting told Business Insider they were happy to hear about the change.
“It is exciting, given that we will have a lot more visibility than we used to,” one employee on this team said.
Another staffer said this change indicates that Paramount is “somewhat serious about the ‘tech’-ification of the company.”
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