The rumors are true: Elon Musk has chosen NBCU boss Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s next CEO.
Musk confirmed Yaccarino’s new role in a tweet this morning, a day after announcing that he had completed his search for a new CEO.
“I look forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” Musk wrote.
Yaccarino announced Friday morning that she is stepping down from her role as Chair of Global Advertising & Partnerships at NBCU. Yaccarino has worked at NBCU since 2011. Prior to that, she was Executive Vice President of Advertising at Turner for almost twenty years. In 2018, she was appointed to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition by former President Donald Trump.
Putting a well-known ad executive at the helm of Twitter is smart, as Musk’s leadership has jump-started this key aspect of Twitter’s business. Musk said he will remain chairman and “CTO and oversee products, software and sysops.” With erratic content moderation policies and inconsistent, sometimes misleading verification systems, Twitter has bled advertisers dry. The company has also laid off key revenue generation teams, such as its sales team.
Musk and Yaccarino already seem to have some kind of relationship. Last month, Yaccarino interviewed Musk at an advertising conference in Miami, where she appeared to take a positive view of the business mogul.
“Elon is committed to being available to everyone for ongoing feedback,” she said said on stage. “He has also agreed to participate in the new transparency and security rules he published yesterday. Remember: freedom of speech does not mean freedom of reach.”
She also pointed out to Elon that “the people in this room are.” [Twitter’s] Road to profitability.” Since its inception, advertising has been the most effective way to monetize Twitter, and Musk’s attempts to monetize the Blue Check have been unsuccessful.
We don’t know if the two were in negotiations at the time, but Yaccarino seemed motivated to clean up the Twitter brand and encourage viewers to voice their concerns to Musk in a question-and-answer session. She reiterated Musk’s position on free speech regarding advertisers, that free speech doesn’t mean “freedom of reach.”
“If, as he says, freedom of speech is the bedrock of this country, I’m not sure there’s anyone in this room who would disagree with that,” Yaccarino said in an interview with Musk. “Could I get a round of applause for that?”
This story develops…
