Whitman to lead media start-up
She is named CEO of mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg’s NewTV.
Whitman, who stepped down as chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in November, has been picked to head a new mobile-first media company launched by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Whitman, 61, will run NewTV, a production company for short-form mobile content. The venture is the first to come out of Katzenberg’s holding company, WndrCo.
“This is a return to my start-up roots,” Whitman said, referring to her early days at EBay, in a phone interview Wednesday.
NewTV aims to apply Hollywood’s high production values with bite-sized digital videos that command the attention of younger smartphone users, said Whitman, who is leaving the Bay Area to take up residence in Los Angeles.
She said the company will seek partners to make content for the platform, adding that it was too soon to determine if NewTV would use a subscription- or advertising-based business model.
Whitman and KatzenMeg berg are former Walt Disney Co. executives. Whitman also sat on the board of DreamWorks Animation, which Katzenberg founded in 1994. Before her stint at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Whitman served as president and CEO of EBay.
Whitman, who ran an unsuccessful California gubernatorial bid in 2010, was considered but not selected last year to replace Uber CEO and founder Travis Kalanick.
“Meg is one of the most accomplished and soughtafter executives of our time,” Katzenberg said in a prepared statement. “She has built and scaled some of the most important global companies today.”
WndrCo has raised about $600 million in funding and has invested in media companies such as the Young Turks, a digital news outlet.
Katzenberg was reportedly seeking $2 billion in funding for NewTV last year, drawing interest from Apple, CBS, Disney, Google, Spotify and Verizon.
Katzenberg, 67, has a net worth of $1 billion, according to Forbes.
He and his wife, Marilyn Katzenberg, donate to myriad philanthropic causes to support human rights, art and culture.