After over 75 years of being based in New York, DC Comics announced today, via a letter to employees from DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson that by 2015, the DC offices will be centralized in Burbank, California, closing the New York office.
This is huge and, potentially devastating news. DC editorial currently resides in NYC, and it isn’t too hard to imagine a chunk of that staff not making the move west, where DC Entertainment’s digital and administrative divisions already reside. DC’s editorial staff – rightly or wrongly – has been much maligned over the past few years, from being overly involved in their titles to general ignorance to last minute changes marring pre-existing decisions. Whether or not DC uses this move as an opportunity to reshuffle the deck or not remains to be seen.
Here is the letter in its entirety:
Dear DCE Team,
As I hope you know, I and the entire DCE exec team work hard to offer transparency about as much of our business plans and results as we possibly and responsibly can. In an effort to continue to do that where possible and to ensure you are hearing news from us, rather than a third party, I am proactively reaching out to you this afternoon to share news about our business.
I can confirm that plans are in the works to centralize DCE’s operations in 2015. Next week, the Exec Team will be in New York for a series of meetings to walk everyone through the plans to relocate the New York operations to Burbank. The move is not imminent and we will have more than a year to work with the entire company on a smooth transition for all of us, personally and professionally.
Everyone on the New York staff will be offered an opportunity to join their Burbank colleagues and those details will be shared with you individually, comprehensively and thoughtfully next week. Meeting notifications will be sent tomorrow to ensure the roll out of this information and how it affects the company and you personally.
We know this will be a big change for people and we will work diligently to make this as smooth and seamless a transition as possible.
Best,
Diane
Our thoughts go out to all who will be affected by this move, and will update you as more information becomes clear.
