Former NBCUniversal exec is new Twitter CEO
A new Twitter CEO will be taking the reins of the social media giant from Elon Musk. The latter originally hinted that he’d appointed someone to take over from him last Thursday, May 11, before confirming that former NBCUniversal head of ad sales, Linda Yavvarino, would be taking the job.
The new Twitter CEO is expected to start in her new role in around six weeks. Meanwhile, Musk stated that she will “focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology.”
I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.
Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023
Musk’s appointment of a new Twitter CEO was a long time coming. Back in December of 2022, the billionaire posted a poll on Twitter, asking users if he should bring in a new CEO. Of the approximately 17.5 million votes, a majority (57.5 percent) voted in favor of Musk stepping down and hiring someone else. As a result, Musk promised to do that and focus instead on Twitter’s technical side as soon as he found someone. That someone, it turns out, is Yaccarino.
Yaccarino’s appointment as the new Twitter CEO shouldn’t come as a surprise. Under her watch, NBCUniversal continued to have close ties with Twitter. Recently, both companies expanded their partnership for the 2024 Olympic Games. This partnership will see Twitter host videos from the event.
In her new role as Twitter CEO, Yaccarino could help repair Twitter’s fractured relationship with some advertisers. Following Musks’s takeover in October, reports came out that many of the social media giant’s top advertisers had temporarily stopped spending ad dollars on Twitter. A number of these advertisers expressed concern about Musk’s looser approach to moderation, worrying that their ads would appear next to hate speech and misinformation.
With a new CEO coming to Twitter, the question now is if the chaos seemingly gripping the service since Musk took the role will come to an end. Since October, Twitter has implemented a number of controversial changes, such as turning its vaunted blue “verified” checkmark into a paid subscription, attempting to monetize popular usernames, to its more recent plan to purge inactive accounts (including those of deceased users).
Will Yaccarino’s tenure bring stability to the site? Only time will tell.
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