Twitter’s new CEO is an NBCUniversal executive with deep ad industry ties
Elon Musk confirmed that the brand new CEO for Twitter will likely be NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino, an government with deep ties to the promoting trade.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a Friday tweet. He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations” whereas Musk will keep intently linked to product design and new know-how.
Before that announcement, NBCUniversal mentioned Friday that Yaccarino would step down instantly as chairwoman for world promoting and partnerships.
Musk, who purchased Twitter final fall and has been working it since, has lengthy insisted that he would step down as high government on the firm, which is now known as X Corp.
Few count on Musk to take away himself from the choice making course of at Twitter, nevertheless.
“While he’s stepping back from the CEO title, Musk is far from likely to step back from calling the product shots,” mentioned Mike Proulx, analysis director at Forrester Research.
Yaccarino, with deep roots within the promoting trade, may very well be a linchpin in Twitter’s future.
Luring advertisers is essential for Musk and Twitter after many fled within the early months after his takeover of the social media platform, fearing hurt to their manufacturers within the ensuing chaos. Musk mentioned in late April that advertisers had returned, however supplied no particulars.
Mark DiMassimo, founder and artistic chief of advert company DiGo, mentioned Yaccarino efficiently built-in and digitized advert gross sales at Comcast and NBC — and that her observe report of cross-selling advertisements throughout totally different platforms may enchantment to Musk as he tries to rework Twitter from a social media firm to an even bigger media platform.
Yaccarino labored at NBCUniversal for practically 12 years — along with her crew producing greater than $100 billion in advert gross sales since 2011, her firm bio notes.
According to LinkedIn, Yaccarino beforehand served as NBC’s chair for promoting and shopper partnerships and as president of cable leisure and digital promoting gross sales. Prior to her time with NBC, Yaccarino labored at world leisure firm Turner for nearly twenty years.
Last month, Yaccarino interviewed Musk on a Miami stage final month in entrance of a whole lot of advertisers.
“If anyone can translate the Musk vision into advantages for marketers she’ll be able to do it,” DiMassimo mentioned Friday, previous to Musk’s affirmation. “Even though there’s skepticism and all marketers live in the `show me’ state right now with regard to Twitter, if in fact she does go to Twitter this is a powerfully reassuring move.”
Proulx added that promoting just isn’t the one problem that Twitter’s new CEO will face — in spite of everything, Musk has “fundamentally altered” Twitter each as a product and a group, arguably “for the worse.”
Shares of Tesla rose about 2% Thursday after Musk made the announcement. Shareholders of the electrical automotive firm have been involved about how a lot of his consideration is being spent on Twitter.
Last November, Musk was questioned in court docket about how he splits his time amongst Tesla and his different corporations, together with SpaceX and Twitter. Musk needed to testify within the trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over a shareholder’s problem to his probably $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electrical automotive firm.
Musk mentioned he by no means supposed to be CEO of Tesla, and that he did not need to be chief government of some other corporations both, preferring to see himself as an engineer. Musk additionally mentioned on the time that he anticipated an organizational restructuring of Twitter to be accomplished within the subsequent week or so. It’s been practically six months since he mentioned that.
Musk’s tenure at Twitter’s helm has been chaotic, and he is made varied guarantees and proclamations he is backtracked or by no means adopted up on. He started his first day firing the corporate’s high executives, adopted by roughly 80% of its employees. He’s upended the platform’s verification system and has scaled again content material moderation and safeguards in opposition to the unfold of misinformation.
Bantering with Twitter followers late final yr, Musk expressed pessimism concerning the prospects for a brand new CEO, saying that individual “must like pain a lot” to run an organization that “has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy.”
“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” Musk tweeted on the time.
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AP Business Writer Mae Anderson contributed to this report.
