X brings on Dave Heinzinger to oversee communications
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Dave Heinzinger will join X as its head of media strategy, reporting to CEO Linda Yaccarino.
Why it matters: X owner Elon Musk is critical of the mainstream media and has never liked hiring corporate communicators on his behalf.
- In hiring Heinzinger, a veteran of marketing industry communications, X is signaling to the ad industry that it cares about maintaining those business relationships.
Zoom out: Musk's close relationship with President-elect Trump could give X a boost over the challengers that have tried and so far failed to replace it since Musk bought it.
- But Musk's alliance with Trump also risks cementing X's position as a partisan environment rather than an even playing field for social discourse.
Driving the news: With the hiring of Heinzinger, Yaccarino is slowly rebuilding X's communications and marketing functions after Musk axed the two departments shortly after taking over the company.
- Heinzinger's hiring comes after the departure of Joe Benarroch, who led X's media and communications efforts until June.
- He joins X from public relations firm Haymaker Group, where he served as president. Prior to Haymaker he led communications for digital advertising platform inMarket and held other roles specializing in B2B communications.
- Heinzinger will serve as the sole communications professional for X and will work closely with its new global head of marketing, Angela Zepeda, who joined X in September from Hyundai.
What to watch: X is still building out a public affairs team, following Twitter holdout Nick Pickles' departure earlier this year. Pickles now works as chief policy officer at Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity startup.
State of play: X's advertising business has taken a significant hit since Musk's takeover.
- The company is expecting to take in roughly $2 billion in advertising revenue this year, Axios reported in August. That's down from the $4.5 billion in ad revenue that the company had in 2021, the last full year that X, formerly Twitter, was publicly traded.
- X continues to be the dominant app of its kind by user engagement, but users are exploring X alternatives following the 2024 election.
Between the lines: Heinzinger's ad industry experience could help Yaccarino navigate X's complicated relationship with the marketing community.
- While some brands have returned to X in the wake of the election, others have left the platform, citing polarization and brand safety issues.
- X in August sued an advertising industry coalition and its members —including CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever — alleging the group abused its influence over marketers and ad agencies to discriminate unfairly against X, prompting an ad boycott.
- Yaccarino has called for an "industry reset."
Yes, but: X's hiring of a media strategy lead doesn't mean the company is going all in on traditional media.
- The social platform's leadership is encouraging executives, brands and founders to skirt traditional media and go direct with their communications on X, according to ads X is running on its verified account.
- The ads promote a "revolutionized approach to public relations," and claim " Traditional PR is dead. Long live direct engagement."
- "The people are the media now," Yaccarino recently posted.
More on Axios: The Trump, Musk fusion
