John Melloy, an executive producer at CNBC, is leaving the financial news network in order to become the Chief Executive Officer of StockTwits, according to reports this afternoon. StockTwits was an early innovator in the world of social finance. The company claims to have invented the # prefix for stocks that is so popular on Twitter, and serves as a metric of the market.
The move demonstrates the pressure on traditional media to keep talent as web start-ups continue to become a major source of information for so many consumers. In an investment world where information is king, StockTwits is able to deliver more information at a faster pace than television. It can do all of that while a user is on the bus, or driving to work.
StockTwits CEO plan
Today’s move will see John Melloy take the reigns at the head of the company while the company’s founder and current CEO Howard Lindzon will become the company’s chairman. Lindzon has run StockTwits since he founded the company with Soren Macbeth in 2009. The company revealed that it had more than 230,000 active members last June.
The installation of Melloy, a rising member in the traditional finance media, is part of a plan that will hopefully see the company become accepted as a leading force in Internet finance in the years to come. In a 2008 interview, Lindzon said that cultural change was needed in order to bring the company into the mainstream.
As we head toward the end of 2013, that cultural change appears to be occurring. Twitter is now a major force in the stock market, and algorithms are working to pick stocks based on the instantaneous dissemination of news over the platform. StockTwits collects the information shared by its users and sells it on to companies like Bloomberg and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).
StockTwits surges ahead
BusinessInsider, which contacted Melloy about his new job, said that it was his decision to leave CNBC, and that it was a great time to get involved at the company. Melloy has previously worked on CNBC shows like Fast Money and Halftime Report.
StockTwits is becoming more and more important to the market as the speed of trading increases day by day. With an experienced and successful member of the traditional financial media at the helm, the company is primed to become an even more integral force in market decisions.
