Elon Musk has confirmed that the new CEO for Twitter is Linda Yaccarino.
In a tweet on Friday, May 12, 2023, Musk noted, “I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”
Linda Yaccarino is the former Head of advertising at NBCUniversal. At NBCUniversal, she supervised approximately 2,000 people, and was involved with the launch of its streaming service. She joined the company in 2011, after 15 years at Turner Entertainment and has been credited with bringing the network’s ad sales operation into the digital future.
Last month, Yaccarino interviewed Musk on a Miami stage in front of hundreds of advertisers.
Musk noted that Yaccarino would start in six weeks while he remains involved as Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.
The billionaire, who bought Twitter last year for $44bn, had been under pressure to find someone else to lead the company and refocus his attention on his other businesses, which include electric carmaker Tesla and rocket firm, SpaceX.
Yaccarino is expected bring to the social media platform, a rich background in advertising, which the company relies on to make money and which has dropped sharply since Musk’s takeover. Many big firms ceased their spending on Twitter in the weeks after Musk took over the reins of Twitter, worried about how their brands might be affected by changes he was making.
Musk immediately fired thousands of staff, including people who had been tasked with dealing with abusive posts.
Yaccarino Could Help Restore Advertisers’ Faith In Twitter
Founder and Creative Chief of ad agency DiGo, Mark DiMassimo, opined that Yaccarino could help restore advertisers’ faith in Twitter.
DiMassimo asserted that Yaccarino successfully integrated and digitized ad sales at Comcast and NBC, and that her track record of cross-selling ads across different platforms could appeal to Musk as he tries to transform Twitter from a social media company to a bigger media platform.
“If anyone can translate the Musk vision into advantages for marketers, she’ll be able to do it. 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.”
Mark DiMassimo
Musk has long insisted that he is not the company’s permanent CEO.
Insider Intelligence Analyst, Jasmine Enberg, stated that “A new CEO is the only way forward for Twitter.”
“The single biggest problem with Twitter’s ad business was Elon Musk. As he steps back, Twitter can begin to unravel Musk’s personal brand from the company’s corporate image and attempt to regain trust among advertisers.
“The success of those efforts will depend on who takes over, but it’s difficult to imagine that the new CEO could be more controversial or damaging to Twitter’s ad business than Musk has been.”
Jasmine Enberg
Meanwhile, Mike Proulx, Research Director at Forrester Research, noted that advertising is not the only problem that Twitter’s new CEO will face; after all, Musk has “fundamentally altered” Twitter both as a product and a community, arguably “for the worst.”
“While he’s stepping back from the CEO title, Musk is far from likely to step back from calling the product shots,” Proulx added.
