{"id":2332402,"date":"2026-03-17T01:26:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2332402"},"modified":"2026-03-17T01:26:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:26:37","slug":"disney-names-abc-news-groups-debra-oconnell-as-chairman-of-entertainment-arm-wkzo-everything-kalamazoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/disney-names-abc-news-groups-debra-oconnell-as-chairman-of-entertainment-arm-wkzo-everything-kalamazoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney names ABC News Group\u2019s Debra OConnell as chairman of entertainment arm | WKZO | Everything Kalamazoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>March 16 (Reuters) \u2013 Walt Disney named insider Debra OConnell as the chairman of Disney Entertainment Television on Monday, adding \u200bthat she will oversee brands \u200cincluding ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Hulu Originals and National Geographic Content.<\/p>\n<p>The media giant unveiled the new leadership structure for its entertainment arm to \u200cbring \u200btogether the company\u2019s streaming, film, \u2060and television businesses, \u2060along with its games and digital entertainment division.<\/p>\n<p>OConnell most recently served as the president of the ABC News Group and \u200bhas been with the media giant for nearly three decades. In her new \u2060role, she will continue \u2060to oversee ABC News and \u200bABC-owned television stations.<\/p>\n<p>The appointment comes just a month \u200bafter Disney named Dana Walden as its \u200cchief creative officer.<\/p>\n<p>Under the new structure, executive vice president of the games business, Sean Shoptaw, and the entire organization will \u2060join Disney\u2019s entertainment segment.<\/p>\n<p>The company said bringing the games business under the new entertainment arm would \u2060mark a \u200cstrategic shift that aligns the \u2060business more closely with Disney+ \u200band \u200cHulu, aiming to expand engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Shoptaw has \u200bbeen \u2060with Disney for over 12 years.<\/p>\n<p>Both OConnell and Shoptaw will report to Walden, who will assume the new position on March 18.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by \u200bAlan Barona)<\/p>\n<footer class=\"entry-footer\">\n\t<\/footer>\n<p><!-- #entry-meta -->\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source wkzo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 16 (Reuters) \u2013 Walt Disney named insider Debra OConnell as the chairman of Disney Entertainment Television on Monday, adding \u200bthat she will oversee brands \u200cincluding ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Hulu Originals and National Geographic Content. The media giant unveiled the new leadership structure for its entertainment arm to \u200cbring \u200btogether the company\u2019s streaming, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2332403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2332402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Disney-names-ABC-News-Groups-Debra-OConnell-as-chairman-of.JPG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2332402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2332404,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332402\/revisions\/2332404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2332403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2332402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2332402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2332402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}