bullfinch subscription: Twitter hires NBC's Vivian Schiller to boost its news cred

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Twitter hires NBC's Vivian Schiller to boost its news cred

Twitter has hired a top digital executive at NBC News, Vivian Schiller, to help boost its partnerships with news organizations.

Schiller will join Twitter as head of news in January, she said in a tweet Thursday.

Twitter is already a go-to destination for real-time news and chatter about current events. With Schiller on board, Twitter hopes to make its service a stronger resource for news outlets, and also usher in more media deals, possibly through advertising.

Schiller was chief digital officer at NBC News for two years. Before that she worked at NPR, The New York Times, and CNN, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Twitter has been partnering with broadcasters to try to become a “second screen” while people are watching television. Through its Amplify program, Twitter works with broadcasters like BBC, Fox and the Weather Channel to place their video content, along with ads, into users’ feeds.

If users are tweeting about certain TV shows, Twitter also places promoted tweets from marketers into their streams with its ad targeting programs.

“We plan to continue to leverage our media relationships to drive more content distribution on our platform and create more value for our users and advertisers,” Twitter said in its recent IPO filing.