Elon Musk has appointed former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk said in a tweet. “@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”
Yaccarino will join Twitter in six weeks, eight months after Musk’s $44bn takeover of the social media company.
Yaccarino joined NBCU in 2011, after 15 years at Turner Entertainment, and has been credited with taking the network’s ad sales operation into the digital era.
Read more The future of linear: Innovation and ads
Musk will remain involved as executive chairman and chief technology officer.
Musk has been under pressure to find someone to Twitter and refocus his attention on his other businesses, which include electric carmaker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.
He fired thousands of workers after taking over the platform, including staff who removed abusive posts on the site. He also changed the way the service authenticates accounts, charging for blue ticks – a move that critics said would facilitate the spread of misinformation.
Advertisers have expressed concerns about some of the changes. Musk himself has acknowledged that Twitter suffered a massive decline in ad revenue.
Musk has said he wants to expand Twitter’s function to include payments, encrypted messaging and phone calls, turning it into something he called X.
Musk said Yaccarino would help build an “everything app,” but his selection of an advertising veteran signals that digital ads will continue to be a core focus of the business.
No comments yet