The CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, has announced that the social media platform will roll out a pay-per-article feature that will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis instead of having to buy a full subscription. “Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with one click,” tweeted Musk.
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
Pay-per-article Feature: A Win For Both Public and Media Organizations
According to Musk, the pay-per-article feature will enable users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per-article price when they want to read an occasional article. “Should be a major win-win for both media organizations & the public,” said Musk. The development came as to Musk tried to boost revenue at Twitter after the social media platform saw advertising income drop last year.
Musk is also urging creators worldwide to begin monetizing their content with Twitter Subscriptions with a promise that the company will keep none of the money for the first 12 months. However, it will take a 10% cut on content subscriptions after the first year. The subscriptions include long-form text and hours-long videos.
Micropayments in Journalism
The micropayment method has already been tried many times, by various publications and platforms as they seek new monetization opportunities. However, the model failed at various levels as readers would like to pick the very best content and pay less for it than they would if they subscribed. Tony Haile, the founder of analytics tool Chartbeat said that some stories cost far more to produce than others, but it balances out because you buy the whole thing, the logic dies if you separate them out.
Also read: US Government Had Full Access to Private Twitter DMs; Claims Musk
