From our correspondent in the United States,
If there’s one person who can save Twitter’s revenue, it’s her. Chosen by Elon Musk For lead the network As CEO (General Manager) in six weeks, Linda Yaccarino will face a double challenge: to bring back the big advertisers, who have suspended or reduced their activity on a much less moderate network than before, and running a tech company that lost 80% of its employees. With an assertive personality and privileged contacts with major brands, the former head of advertising for the NBCUniversal group seems the ideal candidate.
A veteran of advertising and media
At 60, Linda Yaccarino spent two decades at Time Warner, and especially 12 years at NBCUniversal as head of advertising. At the head of a team of 2,000 people – and a figure close to the number of remaining employees at Twitter – she has generated more than 100 billion in advertising revenue, or triple the turnover of Twitter between 2011 and 2022.
Nicknamed, according to wall street journal“the velvet hammer”, for her iron fist hidden under an affable air, Linda Yaccarino, from a family of Italian origin, participated in the biggest projects of NBCU: she merged the advertising departments of all the group’s channels and played a central role in the launch of Peacock, the group’s streaming service financed largely by advertising.
According to New York Timesshe scored points by offering her advice in private to Elon Musk, and also in public, with a praised interview last April at the Possible marketing conference.
Stop the bleeding of advertisers
Advertisers “need to feel like the opportunity exists for them to influence what you’re building,” she told the billionaire. To seduce them, we must “make Twitter a place where they will be enthusiastic about the idea of spending more money”, by focusing on “product development, security and moderation of content”. This has been the hot topic since the takeover of Musk, who made freedom of expression his priority, and allowed the return of Donald Trump and many far-right accounts that had been banned for slippages.
Nearly half of the top 100 advertisers called for a timeout, including General Motors, Pfizer and Volkswagen. According Insider Intelligence estimatesTwitter could see its revenue drop by 2 billion 40% in 2023, a drop of 40%.
To straighten out the network, Yaccarino could bet on sport, taking advantage of his experience at NBCUniversal, a regular broadcaster of the Olympics. In a tweet, she suggested that Elon Musk relaunch Periscope, the streaming app shelved by Twitter, by the Paris Olympics next year.
A political sensibility compatible with it from Musk
Some far-right trolls have slammed her nomination, accusing her of being a ‘neoliberal wokeist’ as she has pushed her pro-vaccine/mask stances during the Covid pandemic. Linda Yaccarino is also part of the media committee of the World Economic Forum (Davos). But her affinities, given her Twitter activity, seem to lean more to the right, even if she is careful not to offend anyone.
Of more than 1,000 tweets reviewed by 20 Minutes, Yaccarino never mentioned Trump, Biden, Clinton or Obama. In 2018, she congratulated Mitt Romney, then a Senate candidate in Utah. His “likes” are more revealing. She marked dozens of Musk’s tweets with a heart, including several of his outings against single thought or censorship, which he compares to George Orwell’s dystopias or Fahrenheit 451.
The leader does not hide her faith and admiration for the pope. And she liked several anti-Biden tweets from conservative figures, including radio host Larry Elder, “anti-woke” Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as other posts from influential sports personality Jack Posobiec. American alt-right.
The leader also follows several “MAGA” accounts, including conspiracy lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood. If this does not mean that she subscribes to their positions, ex-colleagues assure the Wall Street Journal that her political convictions are a good “fit” with those of Elon Musk. The union is perhaps more than a marriage of convenience.