X CEO: Job becoming "much more positive experience"
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X CEO Linda Yaccarino speaks at Axios and Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment's Women's Sports House in Cannes on June 19. Photo: Sean T. Smith for Axios
After her first year as CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino said her job is "becoming a much more positive experience."
- "It has been quite the stunning journey," she said.
Yaccarino returned to the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival last week, her first time back since 2022 and since leaving NBCUniversal as its ad sales chief last May.
- She cited the scope of X's ambition and the pace of the innovation as part of what has made her experience different this time around.
Zoom in: Asked about how the brand community was responding to her new role, she said there was a "very outsized reaction from the industry post-acquisition," but now, "we've done the work."
- Yaccarino pointed to the momentum the company has made in its product capabilities, particularly with video.
- She teased a new "TV app" as X's next big innovation, but didn't provide an exact launch timeline.
- She said X is having conversations with sports leagues about producing more docuseries on the platform.
Zoom out: For years, Yaccarino was considered one of the most powerful women in advertising. Today, her role as CEO of X transcends that community, but there's still pressure on her to address their concerns around things like brand safety and misinformation.
- Earlier this year, Yaccarino testified alongside four other Big Tech CEOs at a Senate hearing on child safety. She called the experience, just months into her new role, "unnerving."
- "You had to pay attention to keeping your confidence up," she said, while also noting that she was the only woman testifying. "It's a different experience."
The big picture: Yaccarino's return to Cannes was also notable because she was joined at the festival by X owner Elon Musk. She told Axios that they came to Cannes to "set fact from fiction."
- "There's insatiable interest in our company, insatiable interest in Elon," she noted.
Between the lines: Yaccarino said she was "happy" to talk with advertisers about brand safety, a concern among the community, but that she wanted to spend time pitching their new investments.
- "The advancements that we've made in the product are so stunning," Yaccarino said.
- Earlier, Musk said on a different stage that advertisers "have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands," but "What is not cool is insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform."
What we're watching: Yaccarino previously said she expects X to be profitable in 2024.
- When asked about it, she said there is "so much momentum" but did not definitively confirm the financial expectations.
The bottom line: "Cannes certainly does hit differently," she said, but "it's all quite exciting," she said.
- Of note, X is partnering with NBCUniversal to distribute clips from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
