X, previously Twitter, desires to make its platform a house to the longer term and information and journalism. On that entrance, the corporate has now employed John Stoll, a former editor and Detroit bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal to guide its information group and partnership workforce at X. The hiring information was introduced on Tuesday throughout X Corp’s keynote at CES 2025 in Las Vegas.
After interviewer Catherine Herridge pushed as as to whether or not X was contemplating launching a information portal of some type on its platform, X Corp CEO Linda Yaccarino responded she was excited concerning the alternative for journalists on X to “discover their craft,” thrive, and make an ideal dwelling. The govt was referring to how creators on X can earn money via the corporate’s creator income share program, which is the way it rewards well-liked content material that will increase engagement.
On X, creators with a paid subscription who meet sure baseline necessities by way of followers and impressions are paid based mostly on engagement from different Premium X customers with their content material.
Paying journalists based mostly on clicks isn’t a brand new concept — BuzzFeed famously sponsored its tougher information with gossip, quizzes, and popular culture tales, solely to search out itself later on the mercy of Facebook algorithm adjustments. X definitely might replace its algorithm sooner or later to downplay information, if it made enterprise sense. (Or maybe, it could merely downplay the kind of information that X proprietor Elon Musk appears to hate…like information from established retailers.)
“The future of stories isn’t legacy media,” Yaccarino mentioned, through the CES keynote. “Legacy media information has develop into nearly like a fan service to just be sure you’re talking to a distinct segment viewers to make your finances. And what we need to do is ensure that we offer an ideal place for that journalistic curiosity to return,” she added.
Instead, she spoke of a platform the place “the shift within the narrative is now within the consumer’s hand” and the place change is impressed by what’s allowed by “protected free speech and a two-way dialog.”
Yaccarino didn’t go into element about Stoll’s upcoming duties at X, solely that he was main the information group and partnership workforce with a deal with increasing information on X at a world scale.
