Twitter appoints Vivian Schiller as head of news TWITTER has hired Vivian Schiller to head its US news operations, as the popular messaging service ramps up its efforts in the field ahead of its stock market debut. We're thrilled to announce VivianSchiller is joining the team as Twitter's new Head of News Partnerships. She starts in January!" said a tweet from Twitter for News. Schiller has been the chief digital officer for NBC News since 2011, and has some 25 years experience in the media business. Prior to joining NBC, Schiller was president and chief executive of National Public Radio and before that headed the day-to-day operations of NYTimes.com, the largest newspaper website on the Internet. She also worked at CNN and Discovery Communications. The appointment highlights the growing role of Twitter and other social media in the news industry. Many journalists use the messaging platform to keep up with events and to get a wider audience for their own coverage. A study released yesterday showed Twitter rival Facebook is becoming a key source of news for users of the huge social network, even if people discover articles mostly by happenstance. Twitter is in the process of launching an initial public offering (IPO) expected to raise up to $US1.6 billion ($A1.67 billion).