Mark Shapiro (media executive)

Mark Shapiro
Nationality American
Education BA
Alma mater University of Iowa
Occupation Television and media executive
Years active 1993–present
Employer IMG
Known for Executive positions at ESPN and Six Flags
Title Chief Content Officer
Board member of
 Live Nation, Papa John's, Red Zebra Broadcasting, and Captivate Network
Awards Peabody Award and Sports Emmy Award

Mark Shapiro is an American television and media executive. He served as Executive Vice President for Programming and Production at ESPN until 2005, when he became CEO and President of Six Flags, Inc. Following his tenure at Six Flags, Shapiro served as CEO and Executive Producer of Dick Clark Productions. He is currently the Chief Content Officer for IMG.

Early career

Shapiro attended Glenbrook High School in Glenview, Illinois and the University of Iowa for post-secondary, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree[1] in 1992. He was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and would later be named a Significant Sig by the organization.[2] Out of college he began working at NBC in their sports department on the US west coast. In November 1993 he left to work at ESPN as a production assistant for Talk2 with Jim Rome on ESPN2. The position required a significant pay-cut and taking an entry-level position, but Shapiro felt that there was more opportunity for advancement at ESPN2, which was just starting, and the new show.

He became a full titled producer within six months for the cable network. At the time he was the youngest producer at the network. At the age of 26 Shapiro was put in charge of a multimedia project intended to chronicle sports in the 20th Century called SportsCentury. The documentary turned out to be the most extensive in ESPN's history.[3][4] Between 1997 and 1999 Shapiro executive produced the series, which was awarded a Peabody award as well as an Excellence in Sports Journalism Award from the Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society.[5][6] During this time he was promoted to Vice President and general manager at ESPN Classic and ESPN Original Entertainment.[7]

Executive career at ESPN

Mark Shapiro became Senior Vice President and General Manager of Programming in 2001 and then Executive Vice President for Programming and Production in 2002.[5] This position put Shapiro in charge of all programming for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNRadio and ESPN's international networks, in addition to ESPN Classic.[8] During his tenure as an executive at ESPN Shapiro spearheaded shows like Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn, in addition to original films, dramatic television, and reality television shows.[9][10] By 2003 he was named by Entertainment Weekly as being one of 2003's rising stars in entertainment.[11]

Shapiro also expanded the World Series of Poker's profile on the network as well as the air time for Outside the Lines. Outside the Lines was moved from a weekend slot to a nightly programming slot, changing the name of the show to Outside the Lines Nightly. The move was the idea of Shapiro and host Bob Ley, increasing the ratings of the show by 39%. The Chicago Tribune reported that these kinds of programming moves helped to boost the overall ratings for the network as well.[1][12][13] Between 2002 and 2003, ratings on ESPN rose by 11%, and original programming made up 6% of the network's total air-time.[14]

While at ESPN Shapiro was behind new television deals struck with several major sports organizations, including the NFL, NASCAR, Major League Baseball, the NHL, NBA, Wimbledon, the World Cup of Soccer, IndyCar, the Big Ten, the ACC, NCAA, MLS, the French Open, and the Australian Open. This included bringing Monday Night Football from its original home at ABC to ESPN.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] He was the executive producer for television shows including Tilt, Dream Job, Timeless, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, and Playmakers. Playmakers was awarded a 2003 American Film Institute award for TV Program of the Year, and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2004. Shapiro was also the executive producer of the television films Hustle, The Junction Boys, A Season on the Brink, and Dick Schaap: Flashing Before my Eyes.[24][25]

During his tenure the network was awarded 16 Emmy awards and an additional Peabody.[7] He personally was nominated for four Sports Emmy Awards, including two separate nominations in the Outstanding Sports Documentary category in 2003, for The Complete Angler and The Best of Leifer. In 2005 he won the award for Outstanding Short Feature, for the series Timeless. In 2006 he was then nominated for the same series in the category of Outstanding Edited Sports Series/Anthologies.[26] He was also the recipient of the UJA-Federation of New York 2005 Sports for Youth Award and in 2006 he was again honored by the federation in the Broadcast Cable category.[27][28] Shapiro was named to the Sports Business Daily 40 under 40 Hall of Fame in 2005 after being named to the list in 2002, 2003, and 2004.[29][30]

Six Flags theme parks

Shapiro retired from his position of Executive Vice President, Programming and Production at ESPN in May 2005.[31] After his departure he was called "one of the most powerful execs in ESPN history"[32] and a "programming prodigy".[5] From October to December 2005, Shapiro served as chief executive officer at Red Zone LLC,[7] as the company pushed for control over Six Flags, Inc.[22] Once Red Zone solidified control over the company, Shapiro became Director, President and chief executive officer of Six Flags, with a tenure lasting from August 2005 until May 2010. His tenure there was marked by a decision to market the theme parks to children and families instead of building more intense rides targeting the teenagers and young adults the park had attracted in the past.[5][31] He received a $10 million signing bonus for taking the position.[1]

Part of Shapiro's changes to the brand included altering park rules to dissuade loitering and other annoyances for family patrons. The parks were made smoke-free, and Shapiro formed partnerships between the company and other brands like Papa John's and Home Depot. Shapiro also criticized the so-called "arms race of roller coasters", whereby different theme park companies attempted to one-up each other in the development of larger more intense roller coasters.[33] The New York Times wrote that:

[Shapiro] ordered more costumed characters like Tweety and Sylvester the Cat to roam parks and installed bathroom attendants. And to attract families, and ward off troublemaking teenagers that roamed the parks, the company banned smoking, tripled security and instituted a code-of-conduct policy. In 2006 and 2007, years in which the company lost money, Mr. Shapiro spent more than $100 million to clean up the parks. The efforts paid off in 2008, when revenue rose 5 percent, to $1 billion, and its operating income jumped threefold, to $144 million.[34]

Shapiro also began to expand the company's properties internationally, entering discussions to open new parks in Qatar, India, China, South Korea, Dubai, and Panama.[23] The state of business at Six Flags that Shapiro inherited was noted at the time as very poor, something that required a long-term strategy to recover from.[35] During the final year of his tenure the company entered bankruptcy, with Shapiro guiding the company back out of bankruptcy protection by the end of his tenure.[36][37] Shapiro and the new ownership team had inherited a $2.4 billion debt load that he claimed was unsustainable before the bankruptcy.[38]

Dick Clark Productions

Shapiro became chief executive officer and an Executive Producer of Dick Clark Productions (DCP) in May 2010.[31] While there, Shapiro was involved with the expansion of the company's programming format.[39] Shapiro left the position of CEO soon after the sale of the company to Guggenheim Partners in 2012, having signalled that he would do as such before the deal closed.[40] The company was sold for approximately twice the amount it had been originally purchased for in 2007 when Shapiro came on board. While at DCP Shapiro was an executive producer of television broadcasts including the Golden Globes, So You Think You Can Dance, the American Music Awards, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.[41] He has continued on in the position of an executive producer for the company.[42] Following his departure from the CEO position, Shapiro was also covered by the press as a front-runner for the top executive position at CNN.[40]

IMG

In 2014 Shapiro became the Chief Content Officer for IMG, after working as an advisor for William Morris Endeavor.[43]

Other work

Shapiro is the long-time Chairman of the Red Zebra Broadcasting radio consortium.[44] He also became a consultant for the NFL Network in July 2010.[9] He has served as a board member for Tribune Co. (2008–12), Live Nation and Papa John's.[40][45] He is also a trustee of Equity Residential, a director of Frontier Communications Corp, and was a member of the advisory board of NeuMedia, Inc.[31] He was also an executive producer for the 2008 feature film Valkyrie.[24] In 2013 Shapiro was named Chairman of Captivate Network.[46]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Teddy Greenstein (July 1, 2007). "ESPN's 'lowball' offer triggered Big Ten expansion". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Significant Sig Detailed". Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  3. ↑ "ESPN's SportsCentury panel". Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ Anthony F. Smith and Keith Hollihan (2009). ESPN The Company: The Story and Lessons Behind the Most Fanatical Brand in Sports. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 150–151. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Michael D. Schaffer (August 19, 2005). "Top programmer leaves ESPN Mark Shapiro's next task will be to make Six Flags more fun for families". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  6. ↑ Dave Nagel (January 2, 2000). "ESPN, INC.: 1999 IN REVIEW". Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Executive Profile: Mark S. Shapiro". Businessweek. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  8. ↑ Danielle Sarver Coombs and Bob Batchelor (2012). American History Through American Sports: From Colonial Lacrosse to Extreme Sports. ABC-CLIO. p. 13.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Playmaker: NFL Network Taps Fmr. ESPN Exec Mark Shapiro As Consultant". Sports Media Watch. July 29, 2010. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  10. ↑ James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales (2011). Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN. Hachette.
  11. ↑ "Rising Stars". Entertainment Weekly. October 16, 2003. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  12. ↑ Richard Deitsch (July 7, 2003). "Under Review: OTL's Big Switch, Courageous Coach". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  13. ↑ Don Steinberg (September 5, 2004). "Q & A WITH ESPN'S MARK SHAPIRO Network to keep building on, breaking tradition". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  14. ↑ Sean Gregory (December 1, 2003). "ESPN's Hot Play Caller". Time Magazine. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  15. ↑ Ethan Sherwood Strauss (September 2, 2011). "WNBA failure and the NBA". Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  16. ↑ Andy Bernstein (April 21, 2003). "ESPN gets multiplatform deal it wanted at Wimbledon". Sports Business Daily. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  17. ↑ Tom Hoffarth (January 3, 2002). "SOCCER: WORLD CUP LIVE, IN ENGLISH.". Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  18. ↑ Teddy Greenstein (July 1, 2011). "ESPN's 'lowball' offer triggered Big Ten expansion". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  19. ↑ "ACC agrees to new seven-year TV deal". ESPN. May 13, 2004. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  20. ↑ "NFL Network to give combine 14-hour workout". USA Today. February 22, 2005. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  21. ↑ "ESPN Extends Australian Open Pact". MultiChannel. April 26, 2005.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Rod Kurtz (October 16, 2005). "Online Extra: Why Mark Shapiro Left ESPN". Businessweek. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Maria Bartiromo (June 25, 2008). "Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro on the Summer Ahead". Businessweek. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Filmography". IMDB. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  25. ↑ "Awards for Playmakers". IMDB. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  26. ↑ "Awards for Mark Shapiro". IMDB. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Sports for Youth". Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  28. ↑ "Broadcast Cable division". Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Forty Under 40: Hall of Fame Classes". Sports Business Daily. March 18, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  30. ↑ "2002–04". Sports Business Daily. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 "Mark Shapiro Biography". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  32. ↑ Chris Jaffe (June 13, 2011). "A look at the inner workings of ESPN". The Hardball Times. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  33. ↑ Fevzi Okumus, Levent Altinay, and Prakash Chathoth (2012). Strategic Management in the International Hospitality and Tourism Industry. Routledge. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  34. ↑ "Six Flags in Negotiations to Stave Off Chapter 11". New York Times. March 14, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  35. ↑ Kimi Yoshino (July 8, 2006). "Six Flags isn't fun for new CEO". Seattle Times. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  36. ↑ Robert Niles (May 12, 2012). "Mark Shapiro is out at Six Flags; Former Paramount Parks head Al Weber is in". Themepark Insider. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  37. ↑ "Six Flags President and CEO Shapiro leaves company". Businessweek. May 12, 2010. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  38. ↑ MICHAEL J. de la MERCED (June 13, 2009). "Deep in Debt, Six Flags Is Bankrupt". New York Times. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  39. ↑ Brian Stelter (December 30, 2011). "Like Clockwork, Dick Clark Is to Ring in Another Year". New York Times. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 Joe Flint (September 5, 2012). "Dick Clark Productions' buyer has appetite for live entertainment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  41. ↑ Ben Protess (September 4, 2012). "Dick Clark Productions Sold to Guggenheim Partners". New York Times. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  42. ↑ Andy Fixmer (August 14, 2013). "Live Nation Drops Most in a Year After CEO Rapino Sells Shares". Bloomberg News. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  43. ↑ Tripp Mickle (September 8, 2014). "Shapiro to drive IMG’s content creation". Sports Business Daily. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  44. ↑ "Snyder Hopes WTEM Buy Will Boost Radio Network". Washington Post. June 12, 2006. Retrieved September 17, 2013. |chapter= ignored (help)
  45. ↑ Joe Flint (November 15, 2012). "Mark Shapiro is candidate for top job at CNN". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  46. ↑ "Marc Kidd Named Chief Executive Officer Mark Shapiro Ap, appointed Chairman". Retrieved September 27, 2013.