An Open Letter to Robert Iger

Hey, just gimme 10 minutes....or at least read my letter!

On September 7th of this year I sat down to write Robert Iger a letter.

I wanted to show him examples of the great journalism being done by VJs around the world. The kind of stuff you see on Brian Storm's Mediastorm.org.

Fantastic global journalism for a fraction of what ABC News pays now.  If he wants to rethink ABC News, there are a few good places to start.

It wasn't email, it was a real written letter.

I had done this before, with Ted Turner, for example - and that led to a meeting with Turner.

Yesterday, I got an answer from Iger - or rather from his office:

"It was very kind of you to seek out our interest in your proposal, and we appreciate the time you have taken to write to us. Unfortunately, I must explain that our company's long established policy does not allow us to accept for review or consideration any ideas, suggestions or creative materials....."

and so on.

It was signed by Gianluca Grecco, Senior Paralegal

Now, let's just stop for a second and take another look at that paragraph again:

"Our company's long-established policy does not allows us to accept...any ideas or creative materials..."

Wow.

That's all I can say.

Wow.

No, wait. I can say more.

We live in an era of Social Networks.

We are massive fans of 'democratizing' the process.

More than 240 million people around the world blog.

People, regular people, upload 24 hours of video to Youtube every minute.

There is an enormous sea of creativity out there (or here), clamoring to get heard.

I actually didn't submit any ideas in my letter to Iger. I only asked for a 10-minute meeting. The same kind of meetings I had gotten with Les Moonves at CBS or Ted Turner. 

I could have taken a rejection but what I got back spoke volumes more.

The world has changed.

Great novels don't come from employees of Random House - they come from people, average people, working at home, banging out novels on their laptops in their kitchens.

Great art doesn't come from employees of the Sherwin Williams Paint Company - it comes from artists striving away in their attics and basements.

Great music doesn't come from employees of Bertelsmann, it comes from musicians in their garages.

To take a content company like Disney and say, effectively, we don't want to hear any ideas from 'you', (whoever you are) is crazy in an interconnected world of social networks and the web.

I am sure Mr. Iger is a very smart man.

Very smart.

Smarter than I am.

Smarter than this.

In the days leading up to the Russian Revolution, the peasants used to say 'if only the Czar knew'.

So I am wiling to assume that in this case, maybe the Czar doesn't know.

But he should.

There's a revolution going on out here.