![\"Advertisers](\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2022\/11\/elon-musk-meeting-advertisers-300x158.jpg\")
<\/div>Advertisers are fleeing Twitter in droves<\/a> now that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken over control.<\/p> Ever since officially closing the $44 billion deal, Musk has been busy gutting the company's executive suite<\/a> and dissolving its board<\/a>. Senior executives, as well as Twitter's advertising chief Sarah Personette, have departed as well<\/a>.<\/p> After all, Musk has been very clear about his disdain for advertising for years now<\/a>.<\/p> The resulting uncertainty has advertisers spooked — major advertising holding company IPG has already advised clients to pull out temporarily<\/a> — and the billionaire CEO is in serious damage mode.<\/p> Now, Reuters<\/em> reports<\/a>, Musk is spending most of this week meeting with advertisers in New York, trying to reassure them that Twitter won't turn into a \"free-for-all hellscape.\"<\/p> According to one of Reuters<\/em>' sources, the meetings have been \"very productive\" — but plenty of other marketers are far from satisfied.<\/p> Advertisers are reportedly grilling Musk over his plans to address the rampant misinformation being spread on the platform, a trend that Musk himself has been actively contributing to<\/a> since the acquisition.<\/p> And if he's succeeding in ameliorating advertisers in private, he's antagonizing them publicly. On Wednesday, Musk posted a poll<\/a> asking users whether advertisers should support either \"freedom of speech,\" or \"political 'correctness'\" — a type of false dichotomy that echoes the rhetoric of far-right conspiracy theorists and conservative pundits.<\/p> \"Those type of provocations are not helping to calm the waters,\" an unnamed media buyer told Reuters<\/em>.<\/p> Some are going public with the same sentiment.<\/p> \"Unless Elon hires new leaders committed to keeping this 'free' platform safe from hate speech, it's not a platform brands can\/should advertise on,\" Allie Wassum, global media director for the Nike-owned shoe brand Jordan, wrote in a LinkedIn post<\/a>.<\/p> So far, Musk's plans for the social media platform remain strikingly muddy. In addition to the behind-the-scenes advertising plays, he's also announced<\/a> that users will have to pay to retain their verification badge, though he's engaged in a comically public negotiation<\/a> as to what the cost might be.<\/p> He's also hinted that previously banned users — former US president Donald Trump chief among them — might eventually get a chance to return, but only<\/a> once \"we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks.\"<\/p> The move was seen by many as a way to wait out the impending midterm elections<\/a>. After all, Twitter has played a huge role in disseminating misinformation<\/a> and swaying elections in the past.<\/p> While advertisers are running for the hills, to Musk advertising is clearly only a small part of the picture — even though historically, social giants like Twitter have struggled to diversify their revenue sources much beyond display ads.<\/p> Musk nodded to that reality in a vague open letter<\/a> posted last week.<\/p> \"Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!\" he wrote in the note, addressed to \"Twitter advertisers.\"<\/p> Big picture, Twitter's operations are in free fall right now and Musk has yet to provide advertisers with a cohesive plan to pick up the pieces.<\/p> While he's hinted at the creation of a new content moderation council made up of both \"people from all viewpoints<\/a>\" and \"wildly divergent views<\/a>,\" advertisers are clearly going to be thinking twice about continuing their business with Twitter.<\/p> With or without advertising, Twitter's finances are reportedly in a very deep hole. The billions of dollars Musk had to borrow to finance his mega acquisition will cost Twitter around $1 billion<\/a> a year in interest alone.<\/p> The company also wasn't anywhere near profitable before Musk took over, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in a single quarter.<\/p> Whether that picture will change any time soon is as unclear as ever, especially in the face of a wintry economy.<\/p> But, of course, Musk has<\/em> proved his critics wrong before. So anything's possible.<\/p> READ MORE: <\/strong>Advertisers begin to grill Elon Musk over Twitter 'free-for-all'<\/a> [Reuters<\/em>] More on the saga:<\/strong> Elon Musk Pulling Engineers From Tesla Autopilot to Work on Twitter<\/a><\/em><\/p> The post Elon Musk Meeting With Advertisers, Begging Them Not to Leave Twitter<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> See the rest here: Advertisers are fleeing Twitter in droves now that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken over control. Ever since officially closing the $44 billion deal, Musk has been busy gutting the company's executive suite and dissolving its board Continue reading
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Elon Musk Meeting With Advertisers, Begging Them Not to Leave Twitter<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"