READING. PART II. Did you know?

1) New Team Alters Disney Studios’ Path

2) They Sign Expansion Deal

3) Disney Looking Into Cradle For Customers

4) Disney Advises Hospitals And Doctors On Improving Patient Experience

5) Another Good Day For Disney

a) The Walt Disney Company has started an ambitious and risky march toward the one corner of childhood it has not dominated yet: newborns. Late last month, the company quietly began pressing its newest priority, Disney Baby, in 580 maternity hospitals in the United States. A representative visits a new mother and offers a free Disney Cuddly Bodysuit, a variation of the classic Onesie.

The endeavor dances close to a flame. Disney has suffered harsh criticism in recent years over products directed at the very young. The fiercest battle has involved Baby Einstein, the Disney-owned maker of “developmental and entertainment” videos and toys for babies and toddlers.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07)

b) When you spend 38 years producing movies, as Jerry Bruckheimer has, you see studio regimes come and go — out with the old, in with the new. The circumstances differ, but one aspect, he said, is always the same: “Hollywood kills you when you bring in an outsider.” Studios risked it anyway, firing its longtime chairman, Dick Cook, last September and replacing him — to dropped jaws in the movie world — with Rich Ross, a children’s television executive from within Disney. Mr. Ross, 48, has been doing more than talking, and experienced hands like Mr. Bruckheimer have not always been happy about that. Quickly, Mr. Ross fired a string of top lieutenants, started experimenting with unconventional advertising campaigns and went against industry norms for a DVD release…

(www.nytimes.com)

c) Like a modern day Aesop’s tale, Mickey Mouse is outfoxing a bull market. The Walt Disney Company was the biggest mover on the Dow Jones on Wednesday, up a smidgen over two per cent at pixel time. A ten year high, no less.

And as The Street identifies, analysts predict the stock to rise even higher off the back of strong revenue gains from ESPN, its recent Netflix deal, and an expansion of its Disney Dream fleet.

(http:\\www.ft.com)

d) Loss making Euro Disney has been given more time by the French government to develop a third theme park. Under the agreement they are to build a third park in the Marne-la-Vallée region until 2030 to add to the Disneyland Paris Park, opened in 1992. Some other projects alongside with a third theme park include a housing development and a new eco-tourism resort, the last in partnership with Pierre & Vacances, the French leisure company. The projects are expected to generate 70,000 new jobs, directly and indirectly, and represent a total investment of ?8bn ($10.4bn).

Euro Disney, in which the Walt Disney Company owns 40 per cent and Prince al-Waleed, the Saudi investor, 10 per cent, will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2012.

(http:\\www.ft.com)

e) Snow White as nurse and the Magic Kingdom as hospital might sound like a child's wish. But the idea is part of a real-life, new Walt Disney Co. program designed to teach health-care professionals how to make patients as satisfied with a trip to the hospital — or the doctor's office — as they are with a trip to a Disney theme park. For about $3,500 each, health-care workers can spend three and a half days at the Disney Institute learning how to pay closer attention to the patient experience.

"Oftentimes in health care, the patient in the bed is almost secondary. Everyone comes in looking at their task instead of looking at the patient," said Patrick Jordan, a Disney Institute consultant and former health-care executive. "Looking at the various parts of your organization from the perspective of your guests becomes very important."

The Disney program goes beyond making patients feel better about their health-care experiences. It also may save hospitals money. Starting in October 2012, the federal government will begin to tie billions of dollars to patients' experiences at hospitals.

(http://articles.orlandosentinel.com)

1)b             2)d 3)c  4)e  5)d