Twitter Names New Heads of U.S. News, Sports Content Partnerships (EXCLUSIVE)
By Todd Spangler
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Twitter has filled some key roles in its reorganized content partnerships group in the U.S. — promoting company insiders instead of outside hires.
In June, ’s global content partnerships group, led by VP Kay Madati, shifted to a regional management structure rather than one organized around content verticals.
With the reorg, global video-partnerships head Todd Swidler and global head of news Peter Greenberger left Twitter. Laura Froelich — formerly global director of sports content partnerships — was moved into the new role of head of U.S. partnerships, while David Grossman, formerly Twitter’s global head of entertainment, is now head of U.S. entertainment (reporting to Froelich).
Now Froelich has picked two other lieutenants: TJ Adeshola as head of U.S. sports and Nick Sallon as head of U.S. news.
Adeshola (pictured above, left) will lead all U.S. sports partnerships at Twitter, after spending the previous few years managing Twitter’s partnerships with major U.S. sports leagues, including the NFL and the NBA. Before joining Twitter in 2012, he worked on ESPN’s digital sales and marketing team.
Sallon (above, right) spent the previous two years as the GM of news for live video. He joined Twitter in 2015 with the company’s acquisition of Periscope, where he led content strategy. Sallon has focused on developing digital video strategies and revenue opportunities for news organizations, including working on programming for Twitter like Bloomberg’s TicToc and Buzzfeed News’ “AM2DM.” Prior to Twitter, he ran content acquisition and business development at Aereo (the Barry Diller-backed live-TV streaming startup sued by big broadcasters).
In addition, Madati announced two other new members of the global content partnerships group: Stacy Minero as head of content creation, and Tyler Vaught as head of creators and Niche, Twitter’s branded-content program for creators.
Minero, who reports to Madati, will focus on branded content. She’s spent the past four years at Twitter on brand strategy and agency development, where her team advised brands on content strategy and creative ideas to launch campaigns or win cultural moments. In 2017, she launched Twitter’s Fuel Team, designed to scale creative strategy to a broader slate of clients and offer in-house editing to optimize video for Twitter.
Vaught is tasked with driving the global strategy around how Twitter partners with creators for branded and original content. He has been at Twitter for three years, previously as Niche’s head of West Coast business development. Vaught reports directly to Minero.
According to Twitter, even though it dissolved the dedicated live-video team, video remains a strong strategic focus for the company.
During the second quarter of 2018, according to Twitter, it continued to invest in video infrastructure, improving the quality of the video experience while increasing reach and engagement for content owners. Also in Q2, the company signed 50 new live-streaming, video-on-demand, video highlight, and Twitter Amplify video-ad deals, including with Disney/ESPN , NBCUniversal and Viacom .
Pictured above: TJ Adeshola (l.), Nick Sallon
