Release Details

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 1999--Gaylord Entertainment Company (NYSE: GET) has announced a new organizational plan that places its business units in three new operating groups--hospitality and attractions, interactive media and creative content--and has named three individuals to head those operations, two from within Gaylord Entertainment and one who will join the company early next year.

The company also announced that Gaylord Entertainment executive Carl Kornmeyer has been named to the new position of senior vice president for corporate development and will focus on mergers, acquisitions, financing and strategic planning. He oversaw cable and broadcast properties prior to creation of the new group alignments.

Dave Jones, previously president of the Opryland Lodging Group, has been named Gaylord Entertainment's group president for hospitality and attractions, and Brian Payne, who was vice president and general manager of the company's recently formed GETdigitalmedia division, has been named group president for interactive media. Tim DuBois, currently president of Arista Nashville, will join Gaylord Entertainment as group president for creative content, but not until he has completed his contractual commitments with his present company.

All four new positions will report to Terry E. London, president and chief executive officer.

"The three groups allow us to better implement our strategic plan and to focus on our vision to provide quality entertainment experiences that create a positive difference in people's lives," London said.

"The presidents of our three groups bring excellent leadership to our efforts," London continued. "Dave Jones already has been the driving force in expanding our hotel concept. Brian Payne has been with our company in various capacities for four years and is now taking on the responsibility to focus our Internet, cable and broadcasting activities. Tim DuBois won't be able to assume his role until later, but when he does, he brings a widely recognized talent and leadership capability that will make a major impact on our creative products."

London noted that the three-group structure reflects the company's growth strategy.

"In the hospitality and attractions group, our strategy is to develop additional hotels that leverage the success of our Opryland Hotel concept into new parts of the country. We are already well down the road with two new hotels underway in Orlando, which opens in 2002, and Dallas, which opens in 2003.

"In the creative content group, we will continue to build exciting content in music, live entertainment, music publishing, feature films, television and artist management. We will expand our existing country and Christian music base to include pop music and other music genres.

"Our interactive media group will focus on the Internet as the electronic media frontier of tomorrow and leverage our cable and broadcasting assets into a new delivery system for our brands and content. We will use that system to create compelling e-commerce and streaming music and video entertainment that showcases and promotes all of our assets.

"Among our goals in this change is enabling management to be more focused and to better communicate and implement our growth strategy, both inside and outside the company. We think these groupings give a clearer picture of the elements that make up Gaylord Entertainment Company and will make it easier to measure and monitor our performance," London said.

Gaylord Entertainment's hospitality and attractions group includes the Opryland Hotel, the Springhouse Golf Club, the General Jackson showboat, the Inn at Opryland, the Opryland KOA Kampground and related Nashville properties, the Opryland Hotel Florida near Walt Disney World in Osceola County and the Opryland Hotel Texas in Grapevine near DFW International Airport.

The creative content group contains the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, Word Entertainment, Blanton/Harrell Entertainment, Acuff-Rose Music Publishing, Opryland Productions, Pandora Films, Cornerstone Sports, the Wildhorse Saloon and other businesses.

The interactive media group includes the company's Internet-related operations and all broadcast and cable network properties. Among those operations are GETdigitalmedia, Lightsource.com, Musicforce.com, Country Music Television International, Z Music Television, WSM AM/FM, and WWTN-FM.

Within each operating group, the existing management teams continue in their leadership responsibilities, reporting to the group presidents.

Gaylord Entertainment is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: GET).