2023-05-13 03:22:38
By Natalie Sherman, Siona McCallum, BBC News
image provided, Getty Images
Linda Yaccarino, former head of communications at NBCUniversal
Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, announced on Wednesday that Linda Yaccarino, former head of public relations at NBCUniversal, will become the company’s new CEO.
Musk said Yaccarino would oversee Twitter’s struggling business operations.
Yaccarino says he will start working in six weeks.
Musk will continue to work with the company as chairman and chief technology officer.
“We look forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the one-size-fits-all app,” Musk said.Tweetbottom.
Musk bought Twitter in October last year for a total of $44 billion. He found someone to lead Twitter and was under pressure to refocus on other businesses, including the electric car maker he founded Tesla and space company SpaceX.
Last year, fewer than 10% of the tech companies on Fortune’s Fortune 500 list were headed by women. Yaccarino is one of the rare women to rise to the top of a tech giant after steadily rising through the ranks of one of America’s largest media companies.
Yaccarino has so far not publicly commented on the appointment.
About Linda Yaccarino
Yaccarino grew up in an Italian-American family. his father was a police officer.
After graduating from Pennsylvania State University, worked at Turner Entertainment for 15 years. He then joined NBCUniversal, where he oversaw about 2,000 people and helped launch the streaming service.
Mr. Yaccarino’s work is characterized by close cooperation with major brands, finding opportunities for “product placement” to obtain effects by casually placing products in scenes such as dramas, and along with TV programs. I’ve been negotiating to put it out. For example, TV shows known for their edgy content, such as “Sex and the City,” also used such techniques in the early days of their launch.
It has also built relationships with new media outlets such as Apple News, the messaging app Snapchat and YouTube.
A profile published in a trade publication in 2005 described her as a busy, married mother of two children, aged 13 and 9 at the time.
“I have no hobbies at all,” Yaccarino said at the time.
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Business Insider’s Claire Atkinson, who has followed Yaccarino’s career for 20 years, said Yaccarino’s ad background could help Twitter, which has seen its revenue plummet since its acquisition by Musk. said it might.
“If Twitter is looking to monetize more than it ever has, this would be a good place to start[with Yaccarino]and Linda is the ideal person to make that happen.”
“It’s easy to imagine Elon Musk needing someone like her,” Atkinson added. “She’s not going to do what anyone says.”
In fact, in 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported that Yaccarino was nicknamed “The Velvet Hammer” because of his negotiating style within the industry.
The Velvet Hammer refers to women leaders and others who respond with grace and eloquence while ultimately getting the job done.
Issues remain, such as handling false information and securing profits
Twitter has come under intense scrutiny and struggling to generate revenue over how it deals with spreading misinformation and managing hate speech. Yaccarino will face these challenges.
Twitter makes most of its revenue from , but Musk said he wanted to reduce its reliance on ads and change how it manages content after the company was acquired.
He also said he wanted to expand Twitter’s features, including payments, encrypted messages and phone calls, to make it like a one-size-fits-all app that Musk calls “X.”
But Mr. Musk sparked controversy early on in the acquisition by laying off thousands of employees to cut costs. Those fired included several people charged with dealing with offensive and abusive posts.
It also reworked how it operates the verification mark that indicates that an account is genuine, so that you can get the blue check mark by paying a monthly fee. As a result, there was criticism that a large number of spoofed accounts could be mass-produced and false information could be spread.
As a result of these changes, advertisers have raised concerns about the risks to their own brands, and many companies have stopped placing ads on Twitter.
Musk has acknowledged a “massive” drop in revenue, but told the BBC last month that the company was recovering.
image provided, Getty Images
At an conference last month, Yaccarino pressed Musk about what he was doing to reassure Twitter that its brand was not at risk.
“The people in this room are accelerating their path to revenue,” but “there are some skeptics in this room,” Yaccarino said.
Some are skeptical of the new CEO
Some people on social media expressed skepticism at the news of Yaccarino’s appointment as CEO. Yaccarino is considered politically conservative, and many have sought clues about its content.
Yaccarino’s work at the World Economic Forum, which is seen negatively by the right as a group of “globalists” (those who see the whole planet as one community and promote world unity). was not well received by some. He was involved in the vaccination campaign for the new coronavirus that appointed Pope Francis.
Leftists also question Yaccarino’s political stance after his involvement in former President Donald Trump’s Sports, Fitness and Nutrition Advisory Board.
Musk, who has appointed women to senior positions at SpaceX and Tesla, is known as an unpredictable and demanding boss.
Business Insider’s Atkinson said that Musk and Yaccarino are having a “difficult” decision on how to moderate their posts, especially with the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaching. He pointed out that he would be faced with a “conversation”.
“No one knows how long Linda will be able to survive in such a complicated financial situation.”
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