It seems that Elon Musk has another planned change for Twitter ahead. Reasonably and expectedly, it is a move from the Twitter CEO that allows the platform to generate more revenue, which is by charging readers per article as opposed to full subscriptions to publishers.
Pay Per Article
Elon Musk announced on Twitter that in May, the platform will start allowing media publishers to charge its readers per article with one click, so users won't have to sign up for a monthly subscription when they want to read just one specific article.
Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023
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.…
The new pricing would let users pay a higher price for each article, which the Twitter CEO called a "major win-win" situation for both media publishers and the public. This is assuming that a user does not read several articles a month to make up for their monthly subscription fees.
While this could be another revenue stream for the platform, which has been looking for ways to earn, it's still unclear how much Twitter will gain from the arrangement. It could also be a way for Musk to bring back publishers after several incidents where the media was antagonized.
As mentioned in The Verge, media organizations are already looking for other platforms to conduct business, seeing as Twitter is no longer as welcoming to the sector as it was before. It appears that Bluesky is slowly becoming a Twitter alternative.
Aside from creating an earning opportunity for media publishers, Musk also aims to encourage other creators to use the platform to monetize their content. Through Twitter Subscriptions, creators can keep their profit with a cut from Twitter for the first year.
The new pay-per-view method for reading articles is just yet another addition to the Twitter CEO's changes to Twitter. Just recently, Musk also implemented a new API tier where third parties are required to pay a monthly subscription.
Twitter has also not been faring well with some of the well-known legacy users who's had the verification badge before without having to pay. Musk has even paid for the subscription of some after publicly ridiculing the idea of Twitter Blue such as authors Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.
As reports say, the revenue from Twitter Blue is still not enough to make up for the losses of the company after several advertisers parted ways with it. Ironically, some of them left because of the monthly subscription for verification.
Bluesky on the Rise
It appears that Bluesky is slowly becoming a threat to Twitter as other media publishers are already trying it out. The platform is already supported by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, as other Twitter users like Chrissy Teigen, Dril, and AOC join the Twitter alternative.
Just recently, Jack Dorsey has also expressed to users in Bluesky that Musk was no longer the best leader of Twitter. Initially, Dorsey said that he trusted the current Twitter CEO to run the company and supported his acquisition of Twitter.
However, he criticized the purchase of the company saying that Musk didn't act right after realizing that the timing of the purchase was bad and that he should not have forced the sale, as mentioned in Fox Business.
