2023-05-12 22:02:34
The businesswoman was until now director of advertising for the American media group NBCUniversal.
Elon Musk had promised in December to hand over the management of Twitter as soon as he found “someone crazy enough to take this job“. The billionaire, who got his hands on the social network in November for 44 billion dollars, is preparing to keep his word. On Thursday evening, he announced that he had “hired a general manager for Twitter who will start in about six weeks».
The next day, he revealed his identity: Linda Yaccarino, director of the advertising department of NBCUniversal, where she had just spent twelve years. His name had been circulating for several hours in the economic press, before the media group confirmed the departure of its senior executive. “Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the Universal App“wrote the businessman, in a message on the social network to the blue bird.
Coming from a family of Italian origin, she has spent her entire career in television, with an initial stint of twenty years with the Time Warner group, which has since become Warner Bros Discovery. At NBDUniversal, she overhauled the advertising strategy to support the move from video to streaming. Linda Yaccarino’s profile could fill a huge gap in the “Twitter 2.0» : relations with advertisers. Elon Musk’s erratic strategy, the departure of 80% of employees, the return of controversial personalities and fears about less content moderation have led a large number of brands to turn away from the social network.
A few weeks ago, she had not hesitated to give some advice to Elon Musk when she interviewed him in front of an audience of advertisers, as part of the marketing conference “Possible“. The objective is to “make Twitter a place where they (advertisers, Editor’s note) will be excited to spend more money“, emphasizing “product development, security and content moderation.»
According to Insider Intelligence, Twitter’s revenue is on track to drop 30% in fiscal 2023, to less than $3 billion. And the Twitter Blue subscription, which is struggling to convince, should not make up for this shortfall. Regaining credibility with advertisers and restoring trust will be the priority mission of the future director. Elon Musk, however, does not quite let go of the bar. In addition to his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors, the entrepreneur will become “chief technology officer to oversee products, software and operations“. A dense job description that leaves a narrow margin of maneuver for the future leader.
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