On May 12, NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino was announced as the new CEO of Twitter, succeeding Jack Dorsey. This comes at a time when the social media platform has been experiencing a decline in revenue and an exodus of marketers since Elon Musk took over last year.
Despite a slight uptick in daily users since early 2022, Twitter’s revenue has fallen by 50% since October as a result of a “massive decline” in advertising, Musk said in March. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October and indicated that he’d only be in charge for a limited time to complete the organizational overhaul he thought the company needed to prosper. In December, Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should step down as CEO and 57.5% said yes.
As the CEO also of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Musk complained of having “too much work” and sleeping at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters while implementing radical changes. During his tenure, Musk has slashed thousands of jobs, scaled back the company’s content moderation, and allowed accounts previously banned for breaking rules to return. A controversial subscription service plan, Twitter Blue, has been flailing, drawing less than 1% of the user base.
Twitter needs to boost sales in order to repay $12.5 billion in debt the company took on when Musk bought it. Annual interest is expected to exceed $1.2 billion. Musk has drawn criticism for his abrupt policy changes at Twitter and neglect of his other businesses. He’s also changed the corporate name of Twitter’s parent to X Holdings, an entity that could eventually be the umbrella for all his businesses — an idea he has publicly mused about. Musk has also said he wants to build Twitter beyond social media and into an “everything app,” including financial services.
Yaccarino’s appointment comes at a time when Twitter needs to regain the trust of advertisers and investors, as well as address the concerns of users who have been impacted by the changes made under Musk’s leadership. Yaccarino’s extensive experience in the media and advertising industries could be a valuable asset in this regard.
At NBC, Yaccarino helped launch the ad-supported streaming service Peacock and has led partnerships with a variety of tech companies, including Snapchat, YouTube, and, of course, Twitter. “She’s probably just what Elon needs to establish trust among advertisers,” said Martin Sorrell, chairman of S4Capital Plc and former CEO of WPP Plc. “She’s going to have to do something to make sure that everything is hunky-dory from an operations standpoint.”
Yaccarino will have her hands full from day one on an operational side, but also in dealing with the mercurial Musk, who has almost single-handedly run the company since he took over and once joked that “no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive.”
Musk already has a friendly relationship with Yaccarino, who interviewed him last month at a major advertising conference in Miami and called him “friend” and “buddy” on stage. Recently, Twitter and NBCU expanded their Olympic Games partnership.
Yaccarino repeatedly emphasized in her interview with Musk that what advertisers are looking for from Twitter is protection. At one point, she candidly asked Musk whether he felt he had “de-risked” the platform enough to assure advertisers that their campaigns aren’t going to land in “awful hateful places.”
She wasn’t afraid to drag Musk’s own tweets into that conversation either. In her position at NBC, which has a large distribution partnership with Twitter.
