Right-wing Twitter worried Musk’s CEO pick could return Twitter to its roots

Enlarge / Former NBCUniversal head of advertising Linda Yaccarino hired as Twitter CEO. (credit: Santiago Felipe / Contributor | Getty Images North America)

After a cryptic tweet from Elon Musk indicating that he’d chosen his successor at Twitter, The Washington Post revealed that sources had confirmed that Twitter’s next CEO will be Linda Yaccarino.

Yaccarino was most recently head of advertising at NBCUniversal (NBCU). This morning, NBCU announced she was leaving “effective immediately.” Over 12 years at NBCU, Yaccarino advocated for improvements in how the company measured ad effectiveness and played a key role in launching the ad-supported Peacock streaming service, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a statement, Yaccarino said it was an “absolute honor” to lead her NBCU team, which she said changed “the entire industry.”

At Twitter, Yaccarino could help rekindle relationships with advertisers who abandoned the platform shortly after Musk took over. Advertisers were spooked by major changes to the platform that caused brand safety and cybersecurity concerns, including Twitter running major brands’ ads next to extremist tweets and causing brand damage by allowing accounts to buy blue checkmarks and pose as major brands.