The rumors are true: Elon Musk has chosen NBCU chief Linda Yaccarino as the subsequent CEO of Twitter.
Musk confirmed Yaccarino’s new position in a tweet this morning, a day after he introduced that he had accomplished his seek for a brand new CEO.
“Trying ahead to working with Linda to remodel this platform into X, the every little thing app,” wrote Musk.
I’m excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the brand new CEO of Twitter!@LindaYacc will focus totally on enterprise operations, whereas I concentrate on product design & new know-how.
Trying ahead to working with Linda to remodel this platform into X, the every little thing app. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Might 12, 2023
Yaccarino introduced on Friday morning that she was leaving her position as chairman of World Promoting & Partnerships at NBCU. Yaccarino labored at NBCU since 2011. Earlier than that, she spent practically 20 years at Turner as an government vp in promoting. In 2018, she was appointed by former president Donald Trump to the President’s Council on Sports activities, Health and Vitamin.
It’s sensible to place a widely known promoting government on the helm of Twitter, since Musk’s management has tanked that key side of Twitter’s enterprise. Musk mentioned he’ll keep on as chairman and “CTO, overseeing product, software program & sysops.” With erratic content material moderation insurance policies and inconsistent, generally deceptive verification techniques, Twitter has bled advertisers. The corporate has additionally laid off crucial groups for income generations, like its gross sales staff.
Musk and Yaccarino already appear to have a little bit of a rapport. Final month, Yaccarino interviewed Musk at an promoting convention in Miami, the place she appeared complimentary of the enterprise mogul.
“Elon has dedicated to being accessible to everybody for continuous suggestions,” she mentioned onstage. “He’s additionally opened up himself to additionally take part within the new transparency and security guidelines he posted yesterday. Simply bear in mind, freedom of speech doesn’t imply freedom of attain.”
She additionally identified to Elon that “the folks on this room are [Twitter’s] path to profitability.” Since its inception, Twitter’s best approach to make cash has been promoting, and Musk’s makes an attempt to monetize the blue examine haven’t been profitable.
We don’t know whether or not the 2 of them have been in negotiations on the time, however Yaccarino appeared motivated to sanitize the Twitter model, encouraging viewers members to voice their issues to Musk in an Q&A. She echoed Musk’s viewpoint on freedom of speech because it pertains to advertisers, which is that freedom of speech doesn’t imply “freedom of attain.”
“If freedom of speech, as he says, is the bedrock of this nation, I’m undecided there’s anybody on this room who may disagree with that,” Yaccarino mentioned when interviewing Musk. “Might I get a spherical of applause for that?”
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