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X just announced that it hired former editor and Detroit bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal, John Stoll, to lead the social media company’s own newsgroup and partnership team in a push to promote independent journalism and free speech.
X Corp CEO Linda Yaccarino said this during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where she discussed how journalists could “explore their craft” and make a living via the platform’s creator revenue sharing program, X Money.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk said that his platform was the number one source of news in the world, a statement supported by Yaccarino who noted that the platform allows users to access the “free flow of information...where the users are given the respect to make their own decisions and see both points of view.”
This platform is the number 1 source of news in the world! https://t.co/j004Rgc3f6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 20, 2024
Although Yaccarino didn’t detail Stoll’s hire, she did mention that the platform is focusing on expanding news on X on a global scale.
“When we look at the sad, challenged state of journalism today when you think [about] journalism under pressure from financials… The future of news is not legacy media,” she told interviewer Catherine Herridge.
Legacy media news has become almost like a fan service to make sure that you’re speaking to a niche audience to make your budget. And what we want to do is make sure that we provide a great place for that journalistic curiosity to return.
We want to make sure that we pay off our promise to incentivize the livelihoods of journalists who contribute to the fair press that the citizens of the world are missing.”
Expanding Tools for Advertisers
She also mentioned the roll-out of over 250 marketing tools and product innovations that didn’t exist before Musk’s acquisition in 2022, which includes brand safety and suitability, partnerships, and industry certifications.
She referred to Trend Genius as the “holy grail” of advertising products — a tool currently in the beta phase that allows ad campaigns in partnership with X to take advantage of trends and “knock KPIs out of the park.”
This is good news for advertisers, who could leverage real-time trends to boost their campaign performance and engagement.
One way to tap into this is by collaborating with the right digital marketing agency to stay ahead.
During her talk, Yaccarino also welcomed Meta’s decision to restore free speech and simplify content.
Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement yesterday, noting that his platforms will rely more on users flagging misleading content — a strategy already used by X.
