A reorganization at Twitter will see Global Dir of Sports Partnerships LAURA FROELICH become Head of U.S. Partnerships, and the company will look to "hire leads for U.S. sports and news," according to Todd Spangler of VARIETY. As part of a larger reorganization under VP & Global Head of Content Partnerships KAY MADATI, Twitter also has "disbanded the live-video business unit responsible for deals with programming partners like Disney/ESPN, MLB and BuzzFeed, moving to consolidate those functions under its content-partnerships team." The company will "adopt a regional management structure rather than the previous one based on categories like news, sports and live video." Under the new structure, the global content partnerships team "will be run by execs for five regions -- the U.S.; Latin America/Canada; Europe/Middle East/Africa; Japan/Korea; and Asia-Pacific -- each reporting directly to Madati." Meanwhile, Twitter Global Dir of Entertainment Partnerships DAVID GROSSMAN is now Head of U.S. Entertainment, "reporting to Froelich." In addition, Twitter Senior VP and Head of Video Distribution & Partnerships TODD SWIDLER, who was "hired to lead the live-video group one year ago, also is leaving the company." The "lead members of the live-video team" -- KATIE WELLS, NICK SALLON and BO HAN -- are "moving into Twitter’s Content Partnerships group." As part of the overhaul, Twitter is "looking to hire a head of global live program management to oversee a centralized team focused on live-video operations as well as Twitter’s Live Brand Studio for live-streaming branded content campaigns." The company plans to "hire new execs to cut live-programming deals in international markets." Twitter said that it is "not shifting gears on its video push." But sources said that the reorganization "reflects disagreement among Twitter’s top leaders on how hard to drive into live premium programming" (VARIETY.com, 6/4).
