This Week Linda Yaccarino Joins Twitter As CEO, She Will Be Busy

This week, former NBCU ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino took over as CEO of Twitter, replacing billionaire owner Elon Musk. After 12 years, on May 12, Yaccarino left NBCU, just days prior to the network’s 2023-24 upfront presentation. Yaccarino, a well-respected media executive, oversaw NBCU’s ad sales portfolio of about $13 billion a year. At Twitter, one of Yaccarino’s first orders of business will be shoring up Twitter’s reputation with numerous blue-chip advertisers, who have left the micro-blogging site since Musk acquired the company in late October.

With content restrictions being lifted by Musk, many advertisers have pulled back on their marketing commitment on Twitter, amid several reports that bullying and hateful comments tweets have grown. In documents recently obtained by The New York Times
NYT
, it was reported Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue for the five weeks starting on April 1 declined year-over-year by 59%. The New York Times also reported that nowadays, Twitter routinely falls below weekly sales forecasts by upwards of 30%.

Jason Kint, chief executive of Digital Content Next, told The New York Times, that Twitter feels increasingly “unpredictable and chaotic”. Kint added, “Advertisers want to run in an environment where they are comfortable and can send a signal about their brand.” In April, Musk told the BBC, “Almost all the advertisers have come back or said they are coming back.” Sensor Tower, reports among Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers from last September (before Musk’s takeover), only 43% were still using the social media platform as of April. Musk had said Twitter is on pace to generate $3 billion in ad revenue this year, a significant fall-off from $5.1 billion in 2021.

Advertising defections are continuing. This week Ben & Jerry’s, a part of Unilever, announced they would no longer pay for ads on Twitter. The ice cream maker had cited a spike in hate speech for their reason. The company noted that until Twitter ends the “extremist and violent content on the platform, Ben & Jerry’s will spend no money with Twitter”. The company also asked for their business partners to follow them. Advertising is by a wide margin the primary revenue source. In second quarter of 2022, before Musk’s acquisition, advertising accounted for 91% of total revenue. (Musk has been looking at other revenue sources, including a controversial $8 monthly fee for a blue check verification, begun in April.)

Another issue making advertisers uncomfortable are the continuing inflammatory comments and tweets from Musk himself. For instance, in mid-May (after Yaccarino was hired), Musk was roundly criticized for a tweet in which he compared George Soros, a 92-year-old billionaire and financial supporter of the Democratic party, with the X-Men villain Magneto. Both Soros and Magneto are Jewish Holocaust survivors. Musk tweeted, “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”

In response to losing advertisers, Musk told CNBC, “I’ll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.” In April, Musk falsely called NPR, a “government funded media” and “state affiliated media.” As a result, NPR, as well as fellow public media outlets, PBS
PBS
and Canada’s CBC, stopped using Twitter. Some advertisers have been using controls to keep away from Musk’s tweets.

Musk, who paid $44 billion in acquiring Twitter, said in March that Twitter (which went private after the acquisition), had been valued at $20 billion. More recently, Fidelity, estimated Twitter’s value at $15 billion. Twitter also has a $13 billion debt load that had enabled Musk to acquire the company which he is paying off.

Besides the advertising and financial concerns, since Musk took over Twitter, the company has lost a reported 75% of its workforce. The personnel departures include many top-level executives and departments responsible for tracking abuse. These defections have raised further concerns with advertisers. With personnel departures and other cutbacks, Musk has said Twitter expenditures have dropped from $4.5 billion to $1.5 billion.

Furthermore, earlier this month, Musk reentered the “culture wars” when he decided to promote a 95-minute anti-transgender documentary entitled, “What Is a Woman?” The controversial video came from the Daily Wire, a right-wing media outlet, that questioned the medical treatment of transgender children and teens. Musk had tweeted that “Every parent should watch this.” The tweet was pinned to the top of Musk’s profile. Musk was harshly criticized for his decision. A number of LGBTQ organizations feared the video would lead to more online bullying. In the first few days, Twitter reported the free video had 174 million views and 168,000 retweets.

Shortly thereafter, on June 1, Ella Irwin, the head of trust and safety abruptly left the company. Irwin is the second head of the department to leave under Musk’s ownership. The department’s responsibility is to ensure content moderation. The previous director, Yoel Roth, left last November and said, “Twitter had little need for the position since Musk rewrites the rulebook according to his own edicts”.

In addition, another executive, A.J. Brown announced his departure the following day. Brown’s role was to reassure marketers that Twitter was brand safe for advertisers. On June 5, Joe Benarroch joined Twitter working on business operations. Benarroch had come from NBCU working in communications strategy and had reported to Linda Yaccarino.

On May 24, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who has the support of Musk, used Twitter Spaces to announce he was running for President. The live audio streamed event was marred by a number of technical glitches before DeSantis could speak. The scheduled start was delayed by 25 minutes. With 300,000 concurrent listeners (well below the audience of what a television interview would have averaged), it caused Twitter’s mobile apps and website to either sputter or crash. Since Musk took over and with a reduction in personnel and cost cutting, Twitter has been beset with technical snafus. According to NetBlocks, in February alone, Twitter experienced four extensive outages. In all of 2022 there were nine.

Musk, has also said he wants to turn Twitter into a “public square”. On June 5, Musk audio streamed a conversation with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. RFK, Jr., is a Democrat candidate for President and along with Musk, a fellow “anti-vaxxer”. The conversation peaked at just over 60,000 concurrent users. Musk has said he would use Twitter Spaces to interview any political candidate.

The following day, Tucker Carlson debuted on Twitter with “Tucker on Twitter”. The debut was a 10-minute program filled with right-wing political comments. In the video Carlson said, “As of today, we’ve come to Twitter. We’re told there are no gatekeepers here. If that turns out to be false, we’ll leave.” Carlson is still under contract with Fox News which contains a non-compete clause, there is the possibility of legal action being taken. Critics noted the video production quality of the first episode was poor, with Carlson even rolling his own teleprompter.

Also, this month, four U.S. (all Democrats) wrote to Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino about allegations that Twitter has, “violated its consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission and placed consumer privacy and data security at risk.” The letter came in the aftermath of mass departures from the social media platform, including the recent resignations of Ella Irwin, and A.J. Brown. The senators point out “Musk’s behavior reveals an apparent indifference toward Twitter’s long standing legal obligations, which did not disappear” since he acquired the company. The senators asked for a response by June 18.

Linda Yaccarino will have a very busy “to do list” this Summer.