Twitter’s plan for profits: television

They wanted, as many startups want nowadays, to build an audience before building a business model. They hope this concept finally becomes a reality and they’re banking on the entertainment industry fueling their need for dollars.

Fred Graver, Twitter’s head of TV, is hunkered down in a cramped conference room in the company’s New York office with a tiny team of two. Outside, sales and marketing staffers gear up for a Summer Friday confab, but Graver isn’t thinking about margaritas. He’s thinking about how to nab James Spader. The actor is returning to television this fall as a creepy criminal mastermind in a highly anticipated show called The Blacklist. Graver wants Spader on Twitter posting behind-the-scenes photos from the set, live-tweeting episodes, conversing with fans–and hell, maybe even tweeting creepy criminal-mastermindy things. That would be just fine.