Twitter Hires NBC's Vivian Schiller as Head of News Partnerships

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By Kurt Wagner2013-10-24 20:07:51 UTC

Twitter announced on Thursday that Vivian Schiller, the chief digital officer at NBC News, will join the company in a newly created head of news partnerships position beginning in 2014.

Twitter announced the news from one of the company's Twitter feeds, @TwitterForNews, and Schiller also tweeted about her upcoming job switch. Schiller brings an extensive news background with her to the microblogging site, having spent time in senior management positions at NPR, the New York Times and CNN over the past 12 years.

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Schiller's role with Twitter has not been clearly defined, although it appears she will serve as an intermediary between the social network and the numerous media outlets it works with daily. (Twitter did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment.) Its goal is to make sure as many news outlets and publications are utilizing Twitter as possible.

In Twitter's march toward an IPO next month, it has been scooping up television and media partnerships to bring original content to the platform. In September, Twitter inked an advertising deal with CBS to bring original video content to users' Twitter streams. Various other media partnerships, including Bloomberg TV, Time Inc., and New York magazine, were already as part of the same program called Amplify.

Schiller's hiring does not come as a surprise. Reports surfaced three weeks ago that Schiller was pegged as the top candidate for the position, and All Things D reported that deal was "all but done" in early October, following months of searching.

Schiller will join a relatively new media partnership team at Twitter when she begins her new job in January. In the last two months, Twitter has hired a new head of music and a new head of sports.

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Image: Kurt Wagner, Mashable

Topics: CNN, head of news partnerships, NBC, Twitter, twitter ipo, vivian schiller