Disney.com to Announce Redesign . . . and That’s All

The new head of Walt Disney Co.’s consolidated Internet businesses is starting to put his stamp on things.

Disney today will announce a major redesign of its flagship Disney.com Web site, exactly two months after Disney Online President Jake Winebaum assumed added duties as head of the company’s newly formed Buena Vista Internet Services group.

An upgrade of the 7-month-old Daily Blast subscription-only site for kids will follow in several weeks.

Winebaum also oversees Disney’s ESPN SportsZone and ABCNews.com joint ventures with Starwave Corp. Disney formed the ventures last spring after acquiring a minority financial interest and controlling operating interest in Starwave, Paul Allen’s Seattle new-media company.

In an interview late last week, Winebaum and other Disney executives wouldn’t say how much money the Burbank media giant is spending on the ventures or whether they are profitable. Winebaum won’t even divulge how many employees work at Disney Online’s headquarters on Lankershim in North Hollywood.

However, Winebaum said Disney.com is attracting 350,000 visitors a day and that Daily Blast is signing up about 15,000 net new subscribers a month for the $4.95 service. Monthly purchases of Disney paraphernalia through the Web sites is equal to sales at three brick-and-mortar Disney Stores--though Winebaum won’t say what that is. “It should be equal to five Disney stores by Christmas,” Winebaum said.

Merchandise sales and other electronic commerce account for a quarter of the company’s Internet-related revenue, with the remainder equally divided among Daily Blast subscriptions, sales of ad space on Disney Web sites and licensing deals, Winebaum said.

Even if Disney’s Internet ventures aren’t making money, executives at other entertainment conglomerates see them as something of a trailblazer.

Few others with marquee brand names have successfully developed fee-based Web sites, and fewer still are experimenting to the same degree with electronic commerce, licensing deals and advertising, execs said.

“We’re watching what they’re doing very closely because to the extent that it works, we’d be interested in trying to figure out how we can take advantage of that kind of opportunity,” said David Wertheimer, head of Paramount Studios’ digital entertainment group.

Daily Blast’s make-over will include a built-in browser that allows parents to turn off access to other parts of the Web and a Disney e-mail service called D-mail that lets kids send mail with animated images, sounds and fancy typefaces on Hercules or Little Mermaid stationery.

Michelle V. Rafter (mvrafter@deltanet.com) is a regular contributor.