Google ad exec Susan Wojcicki promoted to YouTube head

Updated with confirmation of Wojcicki’s new role.

Google advertising leader Susan Wojcicki is reportedly being promoted to head honcho of YouTube, according to a report from The Information.

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Wojcicki has been a long time leader in Google’s advertising group, and even housed the company’s early operations from her Silicon Valley garage way back in the day. If the report of her promotion is true, Wojcicki’s new position does make sense. Google is obviously trying to boost ad revenue from YouTube. And given her past success growing Google’s advertising business, Wojcicki seems like a good fit.

YouTube generated $1.08 billion in domestic ad revenue last year. According to eMarketer, that total is expected to rise to $1.22 billion in 2014, with YouTube claiming 21.1 percent share of all video ad revenue in the U.S.

YouTube is also facing a big problem when it comes to content creators. More specifically, YouTube’s channel partners (content creators) aren’t generating enough revenue through the site to build a sustainable business. If Wojcicki takes over, she’ll need to concentrate on fixing this, or risk YouTube losing quality original videos — videos that could generate a lot of video ad revenue.

The Information is also reporting that current YouTube head Salar Kamangar would likely remain at Google in a new role.

Update: Both Google and Wojcicki have confirmed that she will be taking over as head of YouTube.

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Excited to join #YouTube – wonderful team, amazing community & inspiring creators. I look forward to watching a lot more videos during work.

— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) February 5, 2014