Twitter's first female CEO announced, can it turn the tide?

Linda is not only facing Twitter's advertising dilemma, but most importantly, she will have to deal with a capricious and unpredictable boss like Musk, who fires executives and makes explosive remarks from time to time. style.

Written by: Mary Liu, BitpushNews

Twitter (Twitter) welcomes its first female CEO: Linda Yaccarino, the former head of ad sales at NBCUniversal (NBCU), is expected to take over in six weeks.

On May 12, local time, Elon Musk (Elon Musk) tweeted to celebrate: "I am very pleased to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter! She will mainly focus on business operations, while I focus on product design and New technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the app that encompasses everything!"

who is she?

NBC Universal is a well-known media and entertainment company in the United States, established in May 2004, the company is named after its two most important divisions, National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), one of the three major television networks in the United States, and Hollywood Studios Universal Pictures.

Linda, 60, a Penn State graduate, according to her LinkedIn profile, has been with NBCUniversal since 2011 as chair of global advertising and partnerships, where she launched Peacock as head of advertising sales for NBCUniversal. Streaming media services have played a key role. Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Linda spent 15 years at Turner Entertainment, leading a team of approximately 2,000 people and participating in the launch of its streaming service.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Linda manages approximately $13 billion in annual advertising revenue and is known for her close relationships with marketers and ad agencies and her tough negotiating tactics.

Musk's announcement comes as NBCU is about to usher in its largest advertising pre-sale event of the year, Upfront, a grand event in the US television media and advertising industry, which is mainly for advertisers for the annual promotion, and is scheduled to be held in New York on Monday. . Linda was rehearsing behind closed doors for the event before NBCUniversal announced Yaccarino's departure.

Linda Yaccarino, who has not publicly stated political stances, has served on the sports and nutrition committees during the Trump presidency. In 2021, as chair of the Advertising Council, she worked with the Biden administration on an ad campaign featuring Pope Francis for a COVID-19 vaccine. Over the past few months, Yaccarino has publicly praised Musk and interviewed him at a major advertising conference in April.

Many Twitter netizens broke the news that Yaccarino and Musk have similar political views, and recently liked several of his tweets.

Challenges

Bitui previously reported that Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, and then cut off most executives and hundreds of employees. Under his leadership, Twitter's core advertising business has suffered and revenue has plummeted. Advertisers have been cautious about Musk's erratic decisions in running Twitter and reinstating thousands of suspended Twitter accounts. There are concerns about the platform's brand safety, and Musk has so far pursued a more aggressive subscription strategy without success.

According to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, 37 of Twitter's top 100 advertisers prior to Musk's acquisition spent nothing on Twitter ads in the first quarter of this year, while 24 other brands reduced their average spend on Twitter ads. 80% or more of monthly Twitter ad spend.

In December last year, Musk launched a survey on Twitter about resigning as CEO. He said: "Should I resign as the head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll." Among the 17.5 million replies, 58% of netizens chose "yes".

Now it's Yaccarino's turn to figure out how Twitter can advance its business, and as a seasoned media executive, perhaps help Twitter repair its relationship with its advertisers. "Linda is a force, and her job is one of the most important in advertising, and the ad market is as tough as ever," Joe Marchese, former head of ad sales at Fox Networks, tweeted.

However, Linda is not only facing Twitter's advertising dilemma, but most importantly, she will have to deal with a capricious and unpredictable boss like Musk, who fires executives and makes explosive remarks from time to time. Consistent style.

Advertising industry executive and longtime Linda Yaccarino partner Lou Paskalis compared her arrival at Twitter to "stepping into a lion's mouth," commenting in a tweet: "Revenue-wise, given her stature in the industry, it may be One of the most loved and trusted people, I wonder why she would expose herself to this potential reputational risk, if she fails in this role then Twitter may not survive as an ad-supported platform."