Twitter will Allow Media Publishers Charge Per Article

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Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter and a fan of Tesla in his spare time, said on Saturday that users of his social media site will be able to pay per article starting “next month.

Elon Musk says that Twitter’s upcoming “one-click” service “should be a major win-win for both media organizations and the public” because it will let media companies charge readers who wouldn’t normally pay a full subscription rate more per article.

Elon Musk didn’t say how much Twitter would keep for itself or what rules media companies would have to follow.

Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click.

This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023

As with all of Elon Musk’s time estimates, “next month” is the best case situation for when Twitter’s pay-as-you-go micro-transaction service will be ready. But I don’t think Elon Musk isn’t trying hard. Twitter is in a rush to make more money, even as it turns off long-time users and irritates media outlets, both of which are looking for alternatives. Bluesky is the new favorite option to Twitter. Darth, Dril, and AOC, all big names on Twitter, recently joined Bluesky.

Elon Musk is trying to get artists to join Twitter, which is having a hard time right now. This is why Twitter announced pay-per-article. Musk is also directly courting podcast creators. He is also encouraging producers all over the world to start making money from their content with Twitter Subscriptions, which used to be called Super Follows. For the first 12 months, Twitter will “keep none of the money.”

Elon Musk wants to pay off his debts, but the company is worth less than half of what he paid for it, so he needs to find new ways to make money. Advertisers are said to have left Twitter since Elon Musk took over. Twitter Blue subscriptions aren’t doing well enough to make up for this. The company has also changed how API access is charged, which could cost some businesses as much as $42,000 per month for something that was free before.