So, will Twitter undergo feasible, drastic change under another new CEO? Well, if Twitter managed to continue operating even when Elon Musk had cut its overall staff by over 80%, then new leadership might just be able to turn around its current deterioration.
Let’s not jump to conclusions just yet – the newly chosen CEO hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, so it’s still too early to say just what will come next for the platform. It’s worth noting that with Musk remaining as both executive chair and CTO, then there likely won’t be much deviation from his original plans. Still, a new Chief will be a major change, and based on the person of choice, there are some strong indicators as to what will come next.
Under New New Management
As per The Wall Street Journal, NBCUniversal’s current Head of Advertising, Linda Yaccarino, is the one set to take over as CEO at Twitter, with Musk stepping down in 6 weeks to make room for the new Chief. Yaccarino has worked at NBCUniversal for over a decade and has been pivotal in building the platform’s ad business, in particular, creating its ad-supported streaming service, Peacock.
This is likely Musk’s key consideration in a Twitter context, as he has repeatedly noted that his vision for Twitter is to eventually become a competitor for traditional news outlets, with the platform vying to become ‘the most accurate source of information’ about world events. Musk has also noted that video will be the primary focus for Twitter moving forward, eventually challenging YouTube, by winning over top creators and getting them to exclusively share their content to the app.
This, added to the recent announcement that Tucker Carlson will soon launch a new show exclusively on Twitter, seems to indicate that Musk’s looking to build his own streaming offer within the app, with the same focus of luring more viewers and creators. Given this context, Yaccarino sounds like the perfect fit, having already learned the ins and outs of building an ad-supported streaming service, which now has over 20 million subscribers. Peacock is still operating at a loss, but on Twitter, the outlay could theoretically be much less, since it won’t be looking to produce premium programming for the service. Rather, Peacock will be more focused on providing a means for creators to essentially profit from ad share, likely with minimal investment from Twitter itself.
For Twitter, that would likely lead to a lot more video, way more exclusive content, and a bigger push to frame the app as the best place for the latest news coverage. It’s likely that Musk is aiming to make video a more central focus somewhere down the line, positioning Twitter as an alternative to traditional outlets.
Twitter also came up with several concepts for a combined Tweet experience. However, none of Twitter’s past live-stream efforts have seen significant take-up, with the platform eventually scaling back its efforts, re-aligning itself around its core use case instead. Perhaps now could be the better time to take that leap into exclusive programming. That would mean that the Tucker Carlson Show is just the beginning, with Yaccarino tasked to lure bigger names to the app.
The Wrap
Musk had hoped that he’d be able to make subscriptions a bigger element of Twitter’s overall revenue pie, thereby reducing its reliance on ad dollars, and, subsequently, its need to submit to advertiser demands. However, recent Twitter Blue subscription data indicates that this isn’t going to happen anytime soon, hence the need to appoint a new CEO, shifting perception to this element. As a result, that will see video become a bigger focus, and if Twitter can win over some notable broadcasters and creators, then that could be a more viable pathway for establishing a stronger foundation for platform growth.
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