- YouTube's incoming head of business and chief liaisons to creators all come from Google's ad team.
- In the last 18 months, at least nine top YouTube executives left and were replaced by longtime Googlers.
- Some former YouTube executives say changes signal a return to YouTube's roots that would actually make it more creator-focused.
YouTube's product has changed more in the last few years than it has at any point in its history, thanks to the explosion of TikTok and other short-form videos. The company's executive team has simultaneously undergone an equally dramatic transformation.
By Insider's count, at least eight of YouTube's top executives left the company in the last 18 months. Many of their replacements are coming from one place: Google's ads business.
The turnover is a result of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki asserting her will and bringing on more people with her background in digital advertising, some former YouTube executives and media partners told Insider. Changes also reflect that YouTube is now a meaningful part of Google's ads business and is increasingly pressured to hit its numbers.
That's changed YouTube's culture, which for years after Google bought it in 2006, had been somewhat independent of its mothership's, these people said.
"It's becoming very operationalized at YouTube," said one former YouTube executive. "It used to be more freewheeling with [objectives] and metrics. Now it's becoming very rigid."
What it means for YouTube's overall strategy isn't clear. Some media executives that run YouTube channels are watching the changes warily, concerned that YouTube will be less hands-on when it comes to relationships with creators.
YouTube declined to comment.
Google ad executive takeover
YouTube's chief business officer role has marked a significant shift toward the rising influence of Google's sales culture. This summer YouTube's long-serving CBO, Robert Kyncl, announced he was leaving the company (he later took a job as the head of Warner Music Group).
At YouTube, he shepherded programs like its partner program that helped fund channels. He also backed more traditional media ideas, like funding YouTube's original content initiative and its cable bundle YouTube TV.
Kyncl's replacement is Mary Ellen Coe, a tenured Google ad executive.
Coe, who was president of Google Business Services, brings her experience of working with medium to small businesses. Her role on Google's ads team was, essentially, convincing these types of businesses to use more Google ads products. Former colleagues say her skill is in scaling up teams and businesses to expand the number of partners the company works with.
In the media world, she's more of a mystery. One executive who oversees a major YouTube channel told Insider he'd never met Coe or knew much about her; that executive's point of contact at YouTube had always been Kyncl.
To be sure, there is some crossover between Coe's experience and working with creators, many of whom could easily be categorized as small or medium businesses. But it's a very different background than the traditional media-savvy types that Kyncl brought on.
Coe represents the most recent example of Google's ad executive takeover. Tara Walpert Levy, who joined YouTube last year and is overseeing creator relationships across North America, formerly worked on Google's ads business, managing relations with agencies and other outside firms. Kim Larson, who joined this summer as the global head of creators and reports to Walpert Levy, is another Google ad veteran. Larson worked with marketers that aimed to partner with creators on ad campaigns.
YouTube's current executive team closely reflects CEO Susan Wojcicki's advertising background, media executives and former YouTube employees pointed out. Wojcicki is among the most influential ad executives in Google's history. She helped build products like AdSense into the industry-shifting business it would later become.
Since taking over YouTube in 2014, Wojcicki has grown it into an ads behemoth that churned out $28 billion in revenue last year. It's also a cornerstone of Google's revenue growth. In 2019, Google started breaking out YouTube's revenue specifically to reflect that significance.
2019 is also when Google began keeping a closer reign on YouTube and started to stock it with Google ad executives.
"Something switched when we started to publicly report YouTube's earnings," a former YouTube executive said. "Prior to 24 months ago, it was basically people guessing the economics of YouTube."
Fewer Hollywood projects
During this time, YouTube has been doing away with more traditional media endeavors. The executive exoduses reflect that. The point person for YouTube Originals, Susanne Daniels, who came from MTV, left YouTube in January, shortly before YouTube shut down its entire Originals content group.
Kelly Merryman, a former Netflix executive who came to YouTube in 2015 and oversaw many of the site's Hollywood partnerships, left last year to take a position at a data security firm.
YouTube still has deep ties with big media firms and their legacy businesses. The company continues to prioritize YouTube TV, its streaming cable bundle. This summer YouTube disclosed YouTube TV had 5 million subscribers, making it the largest streaming cable service and the fifth largest cable provider in the country.
To be sure, some of YouTube's recently departed leaders had been there for years. Jamie Byrne, the former director of creator partnerships who left in February, had been at YouTube for almost 7 years.
Others left for C-level positions at other companies—Malik Ducard, the VP of content partnerships at YouTube, took the role of Pinterest's chief creative officer last year.
It's unclear whether the new look of YouTube will change the site's relationship with creators. A media executive that runs several top YouTube networks said he's worried about how important individual creators are to the platform.
But YouTube hasn't shown it's pulling back on its partnership ranks in any significant way. Despite the turnover, the company has replaced all the positions of departing executives.
If there are any indications of a broader shift at YouTube it's not away from creator partnerships but away from traditional media ambitions like original content.
"YouTube's strategy is returning to its roots, that it is a platform about creators," said one former YouTube executive.
Do you work at YouTube or Google? Got a tip? Contact reporter Tom Dotan via email at tdotan@businessinsider.com or Twitter DM at @cityofthetown. Check out Insider's source guide for more tips on how to share information securely.
