A communique from Twitter: Its head of communications is leaving
the firm.
Gabriel Stricker, who has headed Twitter's communications team
since 2012, announced in a tweet that he is moving on.
Stricker's departure marks the first executive exit since Jack
Dorsey came on board as interim CEO just a few weeks ago.
Stricker's former boss Dick Costolo stepped down as CEO on July
1.
It's no secret that Twitter has struggled to explain itself to
the public. In the eight years since its founding, the company has
lacked a clear and consistent answer to the question: What is
Twitter? But more recently, as it has struggled to add new users,
the more pressing question has become: Why use Twitter?
In a statement, Twitter appears to acknowledge that with
Stricker's exit it hopes to do a better of addressing those
questions.
"It continues to be essential that we show the world the value
of Twitter," said a Twitter spokesman. "Communications is a key
component of that, and to help build toward a stronger future, we
are looking now to shift our communications strategy and direction.
We will be bringing in new leadership, and we thank Gabriel for his
contributions."
The spokesman said the communications team will be reporting to
Twitter general counsel Vijaya Gadde while it looks to fill
Stricker's position.
Stricker joined Twitter from Google in 2012. He had grown to
become one of Costolo's closest confidantes. At one point, he
oversaw the marketing team in addition to public relations. Costolo
moved marketing from his purview at the beginning of the year. It
is now under CFO Anthony Noto.
Stricker oversaw Twitter's public relations strategy during its
closely watched initial public offering in November 2013. But in
the year and half since it went public, Twitter struggled to break
out of a negative news cycle that criticized its slowing user
growth rate and lack of product execution. During that time,
Stricker managed to steer clear of a management reshuffling that
saw the departures or demotions of four senior executives.
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