Vivian Schiller, NBC News’ SVP/Chief Digital Officer, is being tapped for Twitter’s head of news position, according to an AllThingsD report. The deal is now “all but done,” according the story, although Schiller will likely take a significant period of time off between the end of her current position at NBC and the start of the new job at Twitter.
Twitter has been on the hunt for an experienced newsperson to fill the position for months, someone familiar with the media landscape who would act as a liaison between news agencies and the microblogging service.
Schiller headed NYTimes.com from 2006 to 2008, then was hired as CEO of NPR. She resigned in 2011 following a series of public controversies, and NBC hired her three months later, in mid-2011, Schiller held senior roles at CNN, Discovery, NPR and the New York Times.
Schiller’s NPR stint ended in controversy; she resigned from NPR in March following controversies including the release of a video that showed one of her lieutenants criticizing Republicans and the Tea Party.
According to AllThingsD, VP of media Chloe Sladden and Twitter’s head of television Fred Graver were champions of Schiller throughout the long hiring process and were instrumental in picking her. Other potential candidates tapped included media personalities such as Jim Roberts of Reuters and Emily Bell, the director of Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School.
Schiller’s hiring rounds out the suite of Twitter’s media partnerships team, which the company has staffed up over the past year. In September, the company tapped Bob Moczydlowsky as Twitter’s new head of music, a former executive at Topspin Media who is often described as a “product guy.” And earlier in the month, Twitter hired former ESPN and PBA exec Geoff Reiss to lead the company’s sports division.
Schiller’s bio has been removed from NBC’s corporate management page.
See the AllThingsD story here.
