Netflix replaces top ad exec, who insiders say faced 'internal resistance' to change
- Netflix has replaced its top advertising executive, Jeremi Gorman, after just a year.
- Her replacement, Netflix exec Amy Reinhard, lacks advertising experience but has the C-suite's trust.
- Insiders said Gorman faced resistance at a company that has long been opposed to advertising.
Netflix replaced its top advertising executive, Jeremi Gorman, after just a year, in a surprise shakeup of its nascent ads business.
Netflix had moved quickly to build its advertising tier, initially enlisting Microsoft as a tech and sales partner to help it launch Basic with Ads, for $6.99 per month, last November. Under Gorman and VP Peter Naylor — both poached in August 2022 from Snap — Netflix also began building its own team, and internal salespeople have increasingly been having more conversations with advertisers.
In Gorman's place, Netflix named Amy Reinhard, who was VP of studio operations. Whereas Gorman's title was president of worldwide advertising, Reinhard's is simply president of advertising.
Advertisers have expressed impatience about the rudimentary nature of Netflix's ad tier and its pace of growth since it was rolled out, and Gorman had promised more ad formats and ways of targeting viewers were on the way.
Gorman's exit was presented to the advertising community by Netflix contacts as a way to reduce redundancy between her and Naylor. Insider spoke to several sources close to the situation.
But Gorman, a seasoned ad exec who held leadership roles at Amazon and Yahoo before her four-year tenure at Snap, faced internal friction in building the ads business from the product side of Netflix, according to insiders close to the situation. Netflix's entry into advertising, first announced with seeming haste during an earnings call in April 2022, followed years of staunch company opposition to such a move.
"There was a lot of internal resistance to change," one confidant said.
Insiders said they believed the choice of Reinhard to replace Gorman was a move designed to help sell the advertising business internally.
She'll report to co-CEO Greg Peters, who has led the company's push into ads as well as gaming. Naylor remains in his role and according to an insider has the firm support of leadership.
Netflix made two other C-suite appointments today, promoting Eunice Kim to chief product officer and Elizabeth Stone to chief technology officer.
Reinhard is an intriguing choice as she has no advertising experience. But she's been with the company since 2016 and is known as a level-headed exec who understands the Netflix culture well. She's been entrusted with more responsibility over the years, starting in content acquisition and adding oversight for consumer products and studio operations. As Gorman did, she already has a seat on Netflix's Lstaff, a group of 20-plus senior executives who drive big decisions at the company.
Netflix leaders have taken pains to stress that the streamer has made progress with advertising sales, but they've also cautioned that it will take a long time before ads become a meaningful revenue source — which Netflix has defined as 10% of revenue. This summer, the company eliminated its lowest-priced ad-free tier to incentivize customers to sign up for the ads tier.
"We've got a long way to go from where we are today to even getting to 10%," CFO Spencer Neumann said on the company's most recent earnings call, in July. "We don't want to get ahead of our skis, if you will. We've got a lot of blocking and tackling to do."
Netflix shared a statement from Peters, who credited Gorman with building the foundations for the company's ads business and praised Reinhard for having a "deep understanding of the entertainment business and consumer tastes as well as the ability to build lasting partnerships across the industry" that are "critical for the success of our ads business."
Reinhard said in a statement that she looked forward to the opportunity to scale "our advertising business and connect our incredible shows and movies with audiences and brands around the world."
Gorman's statement said she would "move on to build again" after building many businesses from the start, but "none more exciting than at Netflix. We've built a world-class team and laid the foundations needed to create a forever ads business."
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.
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