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Honoring Women

24 Nov, 2014 By: Stephanie Prange

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I am so delighted every year to publish this issue honoring the top women in home entertainment. I have two young girls, and I am always encouraged by the accomplishments of the women in our industry, as they are blazing the trail.

These women are forging the path to a new entertainment ecosystem, in which digital delivery is an ever-growing branch. Kelley Avery has been key to DreamWorks Animation’s moves on the Netflix platform. Disney’s Janice Marinelli has spearheaded the cloud-based Disney Movies Anywhere platform. Mary Daily is using her marketing expertise to tap social media. And Lexine Wong is expanding movie extras into the digital realm with Walmart’s Vudu Extras+ for UltraViolet titles.

These women, along with their distinguished teams, are at the forefront of devising a strategy to deliver digital entertainment in the home, while managing a still important physical disc business that continues to bring in revenue for their respective studios. Meanwhile, women at independent content operations are helping to develop delivery of documentaries, independent films and quality television product. On the retail and digital distribution front, women play key roles at Walmart, Redbox, Netflix and Comcast, getting content to the consumer in many different ways.

On this occasion, I would also like to honor another woman in this industry who, after 23 years at Warner Bros., is retiring — Ronnee Sass. Ronnee is one of those rare publicists in the entertainment business who is unfailingly kind and generous, while also being effective at her job. Warner Home Video executive Jeff Baker couldn’t have said it better: “This individual is — and I can speak from first hand knowledge because I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside Ronne Sass for 12 years that I’ve been here — this individual is the best publicist in the history of the home entertainment business. She had a remarkable career here, and she is going to be missed.”

Yes, she will.

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