Agnes Chu is out at Condé Nast Entertainment, a little more than three years after the former Disney exec joined the media and publishing company.
Chu had joined Condé Nast in September 2020 after 12 years at the Walt Disney Co., most recently as senior VP of content for Disney+. In an internal memo, Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch announced that Chu will be leaving the company at the end of October as the result of a restructuring of its senior leadership team.
Chu was instrumental in “building up our film, television and entertainment business with over 70 projects in development and ten projects in production” as well as in helping Condé Nast’s digital video reach a projected 20 billion annual video views, according to Lynch’s memo. “[S]he has been a valued member of our leadership team these last three years,” he wrote. “Please join me in wishing her all the very best.”
According to Lynch, Chu’s role is being eliminated as Condé Nast is implementing a new structure for the company’s top-line leadership across editorial content, audience development, branded content and video. The new structure “will allow our editorial talent to work across all mediums as true digital content experts, enabling these leaders to tell stories and elevate our journalism across all platforms directly,” he wrote, adding that details about individual reporting lines are “still being finalized and we will update everyone when we have more to share.”
In a note Chu sent to the Condé Nast Entertainment team Tuesday, she wrote in part, “I am proud to leave Condé Nast Entertainment better than the one I joined. By building and stewarding a cultural moment content strategy with our iconic brands, we transformed into a globally diversified media division… Most importantly, I am proud of the culture we have created together – one of integrity, teamwork and quality results.”
On the film front, projects from the New Yorker have received Academy Award nominations, Chu noted. She also called out Vanity Fair Studios’ “The Secrets of Hillsong” on FX/Hulu, the New Yorker Studios’ “Cat Person,” and Vogue Studios’ “LEE,” “Invisible Beauty” and “John Galliano: High and Low” among the group’s recent work.
Chu had joined Disney in 2008 and has held a variety of roles for the company, including at Walt Disney Imagineering and as VP of the office of the CEO for Bob Iger. She started at Disney/ABC Television Group in digital short-form development and production, rising to current and daytime programming at ABC Entertainment. Earlier in her career, Chu worked in documentary production, with credits including “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “The Blues,” a seven-film series on PBS, with directors Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Alex Gibney.
