Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced Saturday that beginning in May, the platform will allow media outlets to charge per article read.
“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,” Musk wrote. “Should be a major win-win for both media [organizations] & the public.”
Musk promised the function would be as simple as a single click. On Friday, the CEO explained Twitter will take a 10% cut on content subscriptions after the first 12 months.
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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
The new feature comes after NPR quit Twitter permanently earlier this month in protest of being temporarily labeled as “state-funded media.” Canada’s CBC Radio also paused its activity for the same reason.
“Our journalism is impartial and independent,” CBC tweeted on Apr 12. “To suggest otherwise is untrue.”
CBS News similarly temporarily left Twitter and then returned after Musk took over the platform last year.
The announcement wasn’t met with approval by everyone in journalism.
“Babe wake up we’re doing micropayments in media for the 87th time,” reporter Taylor Lorenz tweeted, along with links to opinion pieces opposing micropayments to news outlets. “By 2024 Musk is gonna pivot to video.”
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This also comes the same week that Time announced it will remove its paywall beginning June 1.
