Hollywood power broker Peter Chernin joins Twitter board

Twitter just got itself some serious media cred.

Hollywood power broker Peter Chernin said late Thursday that he had joined the board of the San Francisco company.

Chernin helped build Rupert Murdoch’s film, television and digital empire before leaving News Corp. in 2009 with a rich exit package to start his own media venture. He made the announcement in his first tweet: “I’ve been a long-time user of Twitter for news and information. Happy to be joining board of this very exciting company.”

With Chernin, Twitter’s all high-tech board gets an instant injection of big-media experience just as the company is looking to pump up advertising sales and cut media deals.

Chernin, who helped mastermind Hulu, is considered one of the more digitally savvy executives in Hollywood who has made investments in digital companies.

Twitter has also been adding executives with public company experience in anticipation of an initial public stock offering.

Chernin had been mentioned for months as a likely new Twitter director. He joins Chief Executive Dick Costolo, co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams, co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey, venture capitalists Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital, among others, on the board. He takes the place vacated by Flipboard CEO Mike McCue.

Chernin declined to comment through a spokesman.

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