You can find the Variety article here (h/t Hollywood Byte) on this trend.
Warner, Disney, Sony, Fox and Paramount have all moved their international chiefs to L.A. over the last couple years, a move they say allows for a more coordinated and efficient global strategy.
I certainly applaud any strategy that keeps the international and domestic sides of the business in better communication with one another. However, I do wonder how this will effect coordination between the top international guys and their local team on the ground in emerging markets.
Anyone who has either worked for or with a multinational knows that there is an ongoing tug-of-war between consolidating staff for better communications on the one hand, and spreading them out to better understand local markets on the other. No magic solution on this and no right/wrong answer, as far as I know.
I see this all the time with intellectual property. Used to be that MNCs had local IP lawyers, at least on the regional level, who had actual authority and would get actively involved with cases. At some point, efficiency dictated that some of these guys would be consolidated in HQ, where a special-purpose IP department was set up to coordinate world-wide IP registrations and infringement cases. These resulted in cost savings, but has often led to communications difficulties between the HQ IP lawyers and the folks here on the ground that are getting direct intelligence on how the IP is being used. (I have written and spoken about this topic many times.)
So is this likely to happen with the entertainment industry as well? Hard to say if this will change the work of the regional distribution guy in Hong Kong or the Chief Representative in Shanghai. Some of these guys have been having trouble getting their message heard in Culver City for many years. Maybe this will just make things a little more difficult.