Twitter news chief Vivian Schiller out in shake-up

SAN FRANCISCO — Veteran news executive Vivian Schiller is leaving Twitter a year after joining the company to strengthen its ties to news organizations, part of an ongoing shake-up at the company.

Adam Sharp, a former C-Span executive, is now in charge of news and government at Twitter under the media division's new chief Katie Jacobs Stanton.

That was a role he held until Schiller, a former NPR executive, joined Twitter.

As head of the government wing at Twitter, Sharp has helped politicians figure out how to use Twitter more effectively.

Schiller was recruited by Chloe Sladden and Twitter's former chief operating officer Ali Rowghani, both of whom left Twitter in June as Twitter CEO Dick Costolo makes broad changes to the company.

Schiller announced her departure on Twitter, saying she was stepping down so Stanton could reorganize as she saw fit.

Reached by e-mail, she declined to comment further.

In a memo to Twitter staff, Stanton said: "As we continue to streamline the global media team and become more operationally efficient, we have decided to merge our news, gov & elections teams in North America. These teams have always worked in close partnership and we believe the new leadership structure will allow for even better synergy and best practice sharing among these important partners. As part of this transition, Vivian Schiller has decided to step down from her role."

Roger Yu contributed to this report.