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Five months after losing a Twitter poll on whether he should remain as CEO for Twitter, Elon Musk has announced former NBC Universal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino to take on the challenge of restoring Twitter to profitability.
In a tweet, Musk said Yaccarino would focus on business operations while he continues to work on product design and new technology.
“Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” Musk said.
Yaccarino said she was excited for the opportunity and shared Musk’s “vision for a better future.”
“I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together,” Yaccarino replied to Musk in a tweet.
Who is Linda Yaccarino?
Yaccarino is an advertising executive with 30 years under her belt.
Most recently as NBC Universal advertising chief, Yaccarino and her global team is credited for yielding $100 billion in ad sales and launching content streaming platform Peacock.
She also helped launch BOLD, a veteran employment program, and #ShesMy, a campaign for uplifting women and girls.
In her tenure as chair of the Advertising Council, Yaccarino collaborated with the White House and members of the business community to launch a COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Last month, Yaccarino had the opportunity to interview Musk at an advertising conference in Miami.
She welcomed him with applause and commended his work ethic before asking about his vision for Twitter.
“Many of you in this room know me, and you know I pride myself on my work ethic, but, buddy, I met my match,” she said.
During their interview, Musk expressed his desire to make the platform “fun” and “interesting”.
“The optimisation for Twitter is maximise the unregretted user time,” he said.
“It’s going well — it’s entertaining,” Musk said, before adding, “Trainwrecks are arguably entertaining.”
What’s Elon’s going to do next?
Yaccarino’s entry means Musk will focus on product design and new technology, particularly on turning Twitter into X, an “everything app” modeled after China’s WeChat.
Yaccarino is also expected to help bring Twitter back to profitability. The social media platform has been on the decline financially before Musk, but recently saw a mass exodus of advertisers due to concerns of a rise in misinformation, hate speech, and other distasteful content. The rise in objectionable content followed immediately after Musk’s massive downsizing, which included firing the entire ethical AI team, the trust and safety teams that manage content moderation, and, and the sales and advertising departments.
By the time Elon was done, he had laid off approximately half of Twitter’s workforce. Musk also reinstated the profiles of former US President Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson and the conservative Christian news satire website Babylon Bee. Musk’s actions parked public outcry and boycotts from major advertisers such General Mills, Eli Lilly, General Motors and Audi.
That being said, Musk claimed Twitter is now “close” to being profitable.
“I feel like we’re headed to a good place. We’re roughly break-even, [and] I think we’re trending toward being cash-flow positive very soon, literally in a matter of months,” he said in a BBC interview.
Paulo Rizal is a content producer for Comms Room. He writes content around popular media, journalism, social media, and more.
